When OpenAI’s executives landed in Buenos Aires to discuss the company’s first “Stargate” data-centre project in Latin America, it was more than a corporate announcement. It was a marker of how artificial intelligence and clean energy are converging to redraw the world’s technological map — and how countries of the Global South, long on the margins of digital industrialisation, are beginning to seize agency in the AI revolution.
The proposed collaboration between Sur Energy and OpenAI, supported by President Javier Milei’s administration, offers Argentina a chance to transform from an energy-exporting economy into a regional AI-infrastructure powerhouse. The project, if realised, would combine Argentina’s abundant renewable resources with hyperscale computing — linking lithium, wind and solar assets in Patagonia with global compute demand in an energy-hungry digital age.
AI Infrastructure Meets Energy Sovereignty
For much of the past decade, debates about artificial intelligence have centred on algorithms, ethics, and regulation. Yet the next phase of the AI economy hinges on something far more tangible: infrastructure. Data centres — the “steel mills” of the digital age — require colossal amounts of power and stable grids. Most have clustered around the U.S., Europe, and East Asia. The Stargate initiative signals an inflection point: a shift of high-value AI infrastructure into the Global South, where energy abundance meets cost advantage.
Argentina’s combination of renewable capacity and critical minerals makes it uniquely positioned. The Vaca Muerta shale basin, the windswept plains of Patagonia, and the country’s share of the Lithium Triangle provide both conventional and clean-energy leverage. Sur Energy’s plan to power the facility through secure, sustainable sources aligns with global decarbonisation goals — but it also strengthens Argentina’s energy sovereignty, insulating the project from external supply-chain disruptions.
In a world where access to compute is becoming the new measure of digital power, this fusion of energy security and AI infrastructure could allow Argentina to leapfrog its historical constraints.
A New Kind of South–North Partnership
What distinguishes this project is not merely OpenAI’s technological footprint, but the model of partnership it implies. Instead of a one-way technology transfer from Silicon Valley to the periphery, Stargate Argentina envisions joint value creation — energy and data flows co-developed under local stewardship.
Such arrangements challenge the traditional hierarchy of the digital economy. Latin America has long exported commodities and imported code. By integrating clean-energy infrastructure with AI computing capacity, Argentina could begin exporting digital productivity rather than just raw materials. This rebalances the terms of trade between North and South, with data emerging as the new currency of economic diplomacy.
For the West, particularly the United States and Europe, such partnerships carry strategic weight. They offer a way to counterbalance China’s Digital Silk Road, which has already expanded cloud and telecom infrastructure across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Supporting locally rooted projects like Stargate gives the West a foothold in regions where Beijing’s state-backed tech ecosystem has dominated.
AI for Governance — and for Inclusion
OpenAI’s “AI for Countries” initiative, also discussed with Buenos Aires, could extend beyond infrastructure to institutional reform. The idea is to embed AI tools within government systems — from procurement to education and healthcare — to enhance efficiency and transparency.
If implemented responsibly, this could help Argentina modernise its public administration, reduce bureaucratic bottlenecks, and improve citizen services. Yet there are risks. Latin America’s experience with data governance remains uneven, and regulatory oversight is still evolving. Without robust privacy protections and localisation norms, the same tools that promise efficiency could deepen dependency on external platforms.
Argentina’s young, tech-literate population — among the most active ChatGPT users in the region — is both an opportunity and a test case. The challenge will be to democratise AI benefits beyond urban elites, ensuring that rural communities and smaller enterprises can access the same technological dividends.
A Template for the Global South
The symbolism of the “first Stargate in Latin America” extends far beyond Argentina’s borders. If successful, it could become a template for the Global South — integrating renewable energy, digital infrastructure, and skill-development in a single framework.
For countries from Brazil to South Africa, India, and Indonesia, this represents a path to building sovereign AI ecosystems without replicating the carbon-intensive models of earlier industrial powers. The key lies in regional collaboration: shared fibre networks, cross-border energy grids, and common standards for AI ethics and data localisation. Such networks could underpin a South-South digital corridor, balancing innovation with autonomy.
At the same time, global institutions must adapt. The Bretton Woods architecture, built for post-war reconstruction, offers little support for nations seeking to finance high-capacity compute clusters or quantum-ready data centres. New multilateral financing mechanisms — perhaps under the G20 or BRICS Plus frameworks — could bridge that gap, recognising data infrastructure as a global public good.
The Politics of Trust
No technological partnership is immune to geopolitics. OpenAI’s presence in Argentina will inevitably intersect with Washington’s strategic calculus and Beijing’s regional ambitions. Buenos Aires must navigate this landscape deftly, ensuring that technological collaboration does not translate into digital dependency.
President Milei’s libertarian rhetoric may reassure investors, but long-term resilience will depend on institutional capacity — strong data laws, transparent procurement, and public trust. Argentina has an opportunity to prove that the Global South can host cutting-edge AI infrastructure without surrendering its policy autonomy.
A Bridge Between Energy and Intellect
In essence, Stargate Argentina is more than an infrastructure project; it is a bridge between energy and intellect, between the material and the digital. It symbolises how nations rich in natural resources can also be rich in knowledge creation — if they invest in the right connections.
For decades, Latin America’s story in the technology sector has been one of missed opportunities. Today, Argentina stands at the threshold of rewriting that narrative. By anchoring artificial intelligence in clean energy and national capability, it could demonstrate that the future of AI is not confined to Silicon Valley or Shenzhen — but can emerge from the Southern Hemisphere, powered by sunlight, wind, and ambition.