Vista shares jumped 5% after PayPal and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel bought them
Billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller's fund invested in that same company in the first quarter
Photo: Flickr/“Peter Thiel” by Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0
Shares of the Argentine oil producer Vista Energy SAB jumped 5% in premarket trading on Monday, August 17. This was investors’ reaction to the disclosure that billionaire Peter Thiel—co-founder of PayPal and Palantir—holds a stake in the company.
According to filings submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday, August 14, Thiel Macro LLC held nearly 1.2 million American Depositary Shares of Vista Energy, worth approximately $76 million, as of the end of the second quarter, which ended on June 30.
This position has become Thiel’s second-largest holding after his stake in Amazon, which consists of 495,000 shares worth approximately $118 million. In addition to Vista Energy, the fund disclosed significant investments in several U.S. energy and electric power companies. Six of the seven new positions reported in the filings are in the energy and utilities sectors: American Electric Power, DTE Energy, First Energy, CMS Energy, Vistra, and X-Energy.
Vista Energy is Argentina’s largest independent energy producer, according to CNBC. The company is developing shale oil fields in the Vaca Muerta formation and has invested more than $6.5 billion in the country. Thiel himself recently moved with his family from the U.S. to Buenos Aires, where he purchased a mansion, the network added.
Forbes estimates Thiel's net worth at $32 billion.
Context
Investment firms that manage the fortunes of ultra-wealthy families began increasing their investments in oil and gas companies, as well as in renewable energy, as early as the first quarter of 2026, according to Bloomberg.
For example, billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller’s family office, Duquesne Family Office, increased its investments in the Latin American energy sector at the beginning of the year, opening a new position in Vista Energy and acquiring a stake in the Argentine producer YPF worth more than $127 million.
George Soros’s family office took a similar approach, opening new positions in five companies in the renewable energy sector. Four of them operate in the solar energy sector, including T1 Energy and Array Technologies.
This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
