Vista Energy up 5% after billionaire Peter Thiel buys stake in the Argentine shale oil producer

Vista Energy rose in premarket trading after Peter Thiel's hedge fund disclosed a stake on Friday. The Argentine shale oil producer was Thiel Macro LLC’s second-largest disclosed position in the second quarter, after Amazon. The billionaire founder of Palantir had relocated to Argentina with his family earlier this year.

Peter Thiel, a venture capitalist and co-founder of Palantir and PayPal, appeared in the Epstein files, with the latest release showing correspondence between and about the two. Stephanie Keith | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Oil producer Vista Energy jumped in premarket on Monday after it was revealed that billionaire Peter Thiel's hedge fund had acquired a stake in the Argentine company. Thiel Macro LLC reported that it owned almost 1.2 million American Depository Shares of Vista Energy, worth about $76 million, as of the second quarter ending June 30, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Filing published on Friday. Vista Energy was last seen up 5.4% in premarket trading on Monday.

This was Thiel's fund's second-largest disclosed position after Amazon, of which Thiel Macro owned 495,000 shares valued at about $118 million. It also held sizeable stakes in several U.S. firms in the energy and power sector. Six of the fund's seven new positions disclosed in the filing are in energy or utility companies. This includes American Electric Power, DTE Energy, First Energy, CMS Energy, Vistra, and X-Energy, according to the filing.

Vista is the largest independent energy company in Argentina, operating out of Vaca Muerta, where it develops shale oil. It has invested over $6.5 billion in Argentina.

Thiel recently relocated from the U.S. with his family to Argentina's capital, Buenos Aires, where he bought a mansion. Since arriving in Argentina in April, Thiel has also met several senior members of President Javier Milei's government, including Economy Minister Luis Caputo, Deregulation Minister Federico Sturzenegger and presidential adviser Santiago Caputo. Earlier this year, Thiel also met with Milei, who has pursued sweeping economic reforms aimed at attracting foreign investment, particularly into the country's natural resources such as oil, rare earth minerals, and lithium.