Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Argentina’s President Milei to meet with Apple, Google, Meta CEOs on US trip

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Argentina’s President Javier Milei is traveling to the U.S. to meet with CEOs from major U.S. tech firms including Google, Meta, Apple and OpenAI, according to an announcement from his spokesman Manuel Adorni on Monday.

Milei, a libertarian who assumed office in December after a surprise election win, is scheduled to depart from Argentina on Monday and is slated to meet Tuesday evening with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

He’s scheduled to deliver a 45-minute speech at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, a limited government think tank, on Wednesday before meeting with Stanford President Richard Saller and Hoover Institution Director Condolezza Rice.

Milei is expected to meet with Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google, Apple CEO Tim Cook, plus more than 30 entrepreneurs linked to artificial intelligence (AI) at a series of events later on Wednesday. He’s then scheduled to meet with more AI entrepreneurs and the Pacific Summit on Thursday before a meeting with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg that evening.

ELON MUSK HOSTS ARGENTINE PRESIDENT JAVIER MILEI AT TESLA HEADQUARTERS

Argentine President Javier Milei is scheduled to hold meetings with prominent U.S. tech executives this week. (Photo by Juan Carlos Rojas/picture alliance via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Google Argentina referred FOX Business to the president’s schedule and declined to offer an additional comment.

Apple, Meta and OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Ticker Security Last Change Change %
GOOGL ALPHABET INC. 174.99 +1.44 +0.83%
META META PLATFORMS INC. 478.22 +12.44 +2.67%
AAPL APPLE INC. 189.98 +3.10 +1.66%

Milei, a self-described “anarcho-capitalist,” won office on a platform that involved deep government spending cuts as a means of curbing inflation, which had risen above 100% for most of 2023 and reached 254% in January 2024.

He also frequently carried a chain saw with him on the campaign trail as a symbol of his goal to slash regulations and cut the size of the government.

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Argentina President Javier Milei

Argentine President Javier Milei has slashed government spending and cut regulations as he looks to overhaul Argentina’s economy. (Photo by Juan Carlos Rojas/picture alliance via Getty Images / Getty Images)

The Argentine president has courted investment from U.S. companies in the tech sector and other industries as he looks to overhaul Argentina’s economy.

Milei’s trip to the Bay Area comes after an April visit to Texas, where he was hosted by Tesla CEO Elon Musk at the electric vehicle-maker’s headquarters in Austin.

The two discussed potential projects involving lithium – a key metal used in rechargeable batteries like those that power Tesla’s EVs – as well as ways to promote free markets. 

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Elon Musk, Javier Melei at Tesla factory

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk met with Argentina’s President Javier Milei in Austin, Texas, in April. (Photo by Presidencia de la Nación Argentina/Handout/Getty Images / Getty Images)

Argentina’s lithium deposits are the world’s third largest as of 2023, trailing only Chile and Australia, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Its mines produced the fourth most lithium in the world last year per USGS.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the Musk-Milei meeting was the first time the duo had met after spending months praising each other on X, formerly Twitter, and referred to their relationship as a “bromance.”

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The Journal noted that after he took office in December, Milei’s government gave Musk’s SpaceX the green light to begin operating its Starlink satellite communications service in the country.

FOX Business’ Breck Dumas and Reuters contributed to this report.

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