Billionaire Elon Musk recommended investing on Argentina on Monday after again meeting with the country's president, Javier Milei, their second encounter in less than a month.
"I recommend investing in Argentina," reads a brief publication by Musk on X (formerly Twitter) along with a picture of him and Milei along with the president's sister and the country's prospective ambassador to the U.S., Gerardo Werthein.
An extremely active user on social media, Milei promptly reposted the publication and also echoed dozens of others celebrating the encounter. Former SoftBank COO and investor Marcelo Claure joined the fray by saying he supported Musk's statement.
I recommend investing in Argentina https://t.co/DIrcf8TsLN
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 7, 2024
The pair met on the sidelines of the Milken Institute's annual conference, where both gave addresses. Musk was interviewed by Michael Milken and discussed a broad range of topics, among them his drive to reach Mars and have humanity become a "multiplanetary species"; the state of the U.S.' education and immigration system and the risks of falling birth rates around the world.
"One of the things overlooked by most historians is the role of low birth rates in the decline of civilizations. In 50 B.C. Rome passed a bill to give a bonus to any citizens that would have a third child. This was a problem in Rome. The same is true for ancient Greece. It seems to be that prosperity destroys the birth rate. When a civilization feels like it has no meaningful external threat and is very prosperous, that causes the rate to plummet," Musk said. "No humans, no humanity," Musk said in a publication that included a clip of his analysis.
Milei, on his end, discussed his economic vision but also delved into the events dominating the global conversation, saying that Argentina has all the conditions to become the Mecca of the West."
"As a civilization, knowing what we're capable of, we're choosing to distrust our own abilities and commit what amounts to collective suicide. It's too late for some places, as we see the consequences of such ideas. An example took place here in the U.S., where tens of thousands of university students promoted Islamic terrorism and antisemitism. The West's future elite is at odds with its own culture," he said.
Beyond the conference itself, Milei is looking to turn Musk's rhetoric into concrete investments. According to Infobae, the two discussed an investment framework in communications and mining, two sectors the Argentine government wants to open up for foreign investment this year. Musk controls a behemoth in each industry, with Starlink in the former and Tesla, which consumes vast amounts of lithium for its batteries, in the latter. Argentina has one of the three largest lithium reserves in the world. The Milei administration hopes Musk will visit Argentina this year to make the announcements.
The two had advanced in the area in mid-April, when Milei visited Tesla's Gigafactory in Texas. Back then, Gerardo Werthein said that both parties "agreed to work in this area and see what opportunities may arise in the lithium are and for lithium processing, whether it's for batteries or somewhere along the chain of value."
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