Peter Thiel's Thiel Macro LLC has taken a roughly 1% ownership position in Vista, one of the largest operators in Argentina's Vaca Muerta shale basin, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission made public on Friday.
The filing states the hedge fund acquired about 1.2 million American Depositary Shares of Vista for an aggregate value near $76 million, equal to approximately 1% of Vista's capital. The filing also disclosed Thiel Macro LLC's broader portfolio value at $418.7 million and listed other holdings, including stakes in Vistra, Amazon and a set of power and energy companies: American Electric Power, DTE Energy, FirstEnergy, CMS Energy and X-Energy.
Vista is a significant operator in the Vaca Muerta formation, which is located in Neuquen province in Argentina's Patagonia region and is home to the world's second-largest shale gas reserves and the fourth-largest shale oil reserves. The company currently produces about 160,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and has committed more than $6.5 billion of investment in Argentina, the filing noted.
In May, Vista raised its own investment and production outlook for operations in Vaca Muerta, a formation described in the filing as roughly the size of Belgium. The SEC disclosure does not expand on the timing or planned changes to Vista's capital allocation following the purchase by Thiel Macro LLC.
The filing arrives about four months after a meeting in the presidential palace between Thiel and Argentine President Javier Milei. Local reporting after that meeting cited Milei as saying the two discussed economic policy and Milei's opposition to wealth taxes. Separate local media reports have also said Thiel recently purchased a mansion in an upscale Buenos Aires neighborhood; those details were referenced alongside the SEC filing.
The filing and subsequent reporting also note that President Milei has signaled interest in using Patagonia's large, cold land areas to develop data centers. The SEC filing mentions that data center projects in parts of Latin America have encountered opposition in other markets because of high water and energy demands, without tying those concerns directly to Vista's operations.
Context and implications
The SEC filing provides a snapshot of an institutional investor's position in an Argentine oil operator and lists a diverse portfolio of energy and technology holdings. It documents Vista's current production scale and past capital deployment in Argentina and reiterates recent company guidance changes for Vaca Muerta.