Argentina’s President Javier Milei is pitching his country as a haven for AI data centres, promising a hands-off approach to the technology, The Associated Press reported on 2 November. To win over wary investors, Milei is pushing an incentive scheme that would cut the corporate income tax rate to 15% for projects of at least $1 billion in AI and other emerging industries, according to AP. The measure is awaiting Senate approval.
Under the existing RIGI investment regime the rate is 25%, and the general rule is 35%, according to the fact-checking site Chequeado. By our arithmetic, the proposed 15% is 10 points below the RIGI rate and less than half the general rate.
The key insight: AP reported on 2 November that Argentina’s President Javier Milei is pitching the country as an AI data-centre haven with no AI regulation and a proposed 15% tax rate for $1 billion-plus projects, less than half the 35% general rate by our arithmetic.
“We are not going to regulate artificial intelligence,” Milei told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington last month, AP reported. “We are going to leave it free.”
The tax cut sits in a bill known as the Super RIGI. Argentina’s lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, approved it on 24 June by 130 votes to 106, Infobae reported. The bill targets investments of more than $1 billion in industries including artificial intelligence and data centres, alongside lithium batteries, electric cars, solar panels and wind turbines, according to Infobae.
Beyond the 15% rate, the bill sets a 7% rate on dividends that falls to 3.5% after four years, a single 10% rate for employer contributions on new jobs, and zero export duties from day one, Chequeado reported. Both regimes guarantee their benefits for 30 years, the site said.
Milei’s proposed incentives do not require companies to reserve computing capacity for local use or to disclose their energy and water use, AP reported.
Argentina’s corporate income tax rate under the general rule (35%), the RIGI regime (25%) and the Super RIGI bill (15%), per Chequeado, and the two Patagonia data-centre plans named by AP and the Buenos Aires Times. The Super RIGI passed the lower house 130-106 (Infobae) and awaits the Senate (AP).
Who Has Been Visiting
Visitor logs obtained by AP show tech figures meeting Milei and his aides in recent months, from venture capitalist Peter Thiel to representatives of OpenAI, Amazon, Google, Oracle and data centre companies, the agency reported. Foreign Ministry records show that data centre developer Crusoe sought talks this year with Argentine energy officials about U.S. government-backed investments, according to AP.
Why Patagonia
Patagonia offers open plains far from population centres, a chilly climate to cool servers, strong winds for electricity and the Vaca Muerta shale deposit to fuel power plants, AP reported. Pampa Energía, one of the country’s biggest power companies, has announced plans to supply gas-fired power to a data centre near Vaca Muerta and is seeking developers, the agency said.
Green Capital, a Polish renewable energy company, plans to build a $3 billion data centre in Patagonia to lease to big tech firms, though it has yet to secure a customer, AP reported. Fourteen landowners have leased a combined 130,000 hectares to the company near Trelew, in Chubut province, and construction is not expected to begin until around 2028, according to AP.
“We compared potential locations for the project around the world and Argentina — well, Patagonia — came out on top in every category,” Green Capital’s Marta Zlotkowska told AP. If run continuously at its projected peak demand, the campus would use about 2.7 times as much electricity in a year as the city of Buenos Aires consumed in 2025, according to an AP calculation.
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The Stargate Argentina Gap
The biggest plan named so far is older. On 10 October 2025, Milei’s office announced Stargate Argentina, a letter of intent between OpenAI and Argentine company Sur Energy for a data centre of up to 500MW and an investment of up to $25 billion, the Buenos Aires Times reported.
In May, Argentina’s Economy Ministry told the newspaper Perfil that there is nothing to back up that statement of intent, according to the Buenos Aires Times. In October, Sur Energy co-founder Emiliano Kargieman said the project had not moved from a letter of intent to a firm contract, Clarín reported, as summarised by NeoTeo.
By our arithmetic, the two Patagonia plans named in these reports add up to as much as $28 billion: up to $25 billion for Stargate Argentina and $3 billion for Green Capital. Green Capital has yet to secure a customer, and Stargate Argentina has not reached a firm contract, according to the same reports.
The Pushback
“We’re not talking about data centers designed to strengthen Argentine technological sovereignty,” said Alan Rocha Varsanyi, a researcher at the environmental group Observatorio Petrolero Sur, according to AP. “The computing capacity will be exported wherever OpenAI or the other companies need it.”
In Trelew, a small group of residents has rallied under the banner “Trelew Free of Data Centers,” AP reported. In Congress, the opposition has stalled Milei’s plan to let AI agents control companies, the agency said. Some investors are holding back until next year’s presidential election, worried that a new government could unravel his reforms, according to AP.
As we read the reports, the offer is regulatory and fiscal: AP says the incentives do not require companies to reserve compute for local use or to disclose energy and water use.
As we read them, the plans named so far are still on paper: Green Capital has yet to secure a customer, according to AP, and Stargate Argentina has not reached a firm contract, according to Clarín as summarised by NeoTeo.
Javier Milei, to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, as reported by AP
“We are not going to regulate artificial intelligence”
Three Implications
FOR DATA-CENTRE DEVELOPERS AP reports that the Super RIGI would cut the corporate income tax rate to 15% for projects of at least $1 billion, and that the measure is awaiting Senate approval.
FOR LOCAL COMMUNITIES In Trelew, a small group of residents has rallied under the banner “Trelew Free of Data Centers,” AP reported.
FOR INVESTORS Some investors are holding back until next year’s presidential election, worried a new government could unravel Milei’s reforms, according to AP.
The framework starts from power: “The structural bottleneck isn’t computing, it’s electrons.”
As we read it, Milei’s pitch leans on that bottleneck: AP reports that Patagonia offers wind, a cold climate and Vaca Muerta gas, while grid fights slow projects in the US and Europe. The framework is the owner’s argument and does not discuss Argentina.
AP did not give a date for a Senate vote on the Super RIGI. Green Capital has not specified how much water the project would need or how much of its power would come from gas, and environmental studies and permits are still pending, AP reported.
The Stargate Argentina status comes from press accounts: the Economy Ministry’s comments to Perfil as reported by the Buenos Aires Times, and Kargieman’s comments to Clarín as summarised by NeoTeo. We did not read the Perfil or Clarín originals, and OpenAI has not commented on the project’s status in these reports.
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Milei is offering AI data centres a promise of no AI regulation and a proposed 15% tax rate, less than half Argentina’s 35% general rate by our arithmetic, AP and Chequeado reported. The two Patagonia plans named so far add up to as much as $28 billion by our arithmetic, and neither has a firm customer contract, according to the reports.
A note on sourcing. The pitch, the visitor logs, the Patagonia plans and the pushback are from AP’s 2 November report. Tax rates are from Chequeado and the lower-house vote from Infobae. Stargate Argentina’s status is from the Buenos Aires Times (citing Perfil) and NeoTeo (summarising Clarín); we did not read Perfil or Clarín. The 10-point gap, the less-than-half comparison and the $28 billion total are our arithmetic.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
