A Rare Consensus on Investment Attractiveness
Argentina's Chamber of Deputies approved the "Súper RIGI" bill on June 25, 2026 by a 130–106 margin (7 abstentions), extending Argentina's large-investment incentive framework — first established under Law 27.742 in 2024 — into new territory: artificial intelligence, data centers, semiconductor manufacturing, advanced biotechnology, and the lithium battery supply chain. The bill now moves to the Senate.
The fiscal architecture is striking. Projects committing at least US$1 billion are rewarded with a 15% corporate income tax rate (versus the standard 35%), complete elimination of import duties on production equipment, abolition of export taxes, a provincial gross income tax cap of 0.5%, and a prohibition on municipal sales taxes — all locked in for thirty years. The 20% local sourcing requirement that existed under the original RIGI has been abolished entirely.
The Case for the Super RIGI
The strongest argument for the bill is competitive urgency. Latin America is a battleground for hyperscale data center investment, and Argentina's energy surplus, significant renewable capacity, and geographic positioning make it a natural candidate. The country's original RIGI — enacted under President Milei's "Ley de Bases" — already attracted 45 companies from 11 countries, demonstrating that fiscal certainty converts to signed project agreements. The Súper RIGI's higher threshold and deeper tax cuts are calibrated precisely to attract the hyperscale commitments that regional rivals have already secured.
The administration's argument — that Argentina cannot afford to be left behind in the global race for AI infrastructure — is not without merit. A $1 billion data center paying 15% corporate tax is significantly better for Argentine fiscal receipts than a project that never materialises because competitors offered clearer terms.
What's Not in the Bill — and Why It Matters
The problem is not what the Súper RIGI gives. It is what it demands in return: nothing that touches domestic connectivity.
Brazil's REDATA framework, re-approved by the Chamber in February 2026, makes for an instructive contrast. To access Brazil's data center tax benefits, a company must use 100% clean energy, maintain a water-use efficiency index of ≤0.05 litres per kilowatt-hour, invest 2% of acquired asset value in Brazilian R&D projects, allocate 40% of resources toward the North, Northeast, and Central-West regions, and — most directly relevant — reserve 10% of installed processing and storage capacity for the domestic market. These are statutory conditions, not voluntary pledges; failure to meet any one of them triggers immediate repayment of the tax savings with interest and penalties.
Chile's approach is lighter. Its National Data Center Plan (PDATA 2024–2030) relies on renewable energy requirements and co-funding instruments for research institutions rather than hard percentage mandates on private investors. But it still ties public support to measurable public-benefit outcomes — a minimum standard the Súper RIGI does not reach.
The Argentine bill contains none of this: no broadband deployment obligation, no connectivity reserve for underserved provinces, no technology-transfer clause, no domestic R&D commitment, no local hiring floor.
Argentina's Digital Divide Is Not Hypothetical
This omission lands against a concrete backdrop. Argentina's urban-rural connectivity gap is severe: while approximately 88% of urban households are connected, over 40% of rural communities lack internet access entirely. Northern provinces — Formosa, Corrientes, Santiago del Estero — report household connectivity rates below 60%. The situation worsened after Decree 302/2024 lifted ENACOM's price controls on broadband services in April 2024, pushing average monthly costs from roughly ARS 3,700 to ARS 15,600 — a fourfold increase that outpaced even Argentina's 118% inflation over the same period.
The Universal Service Fund has seen peso-denominated allocations for rural expansion under ENACOM Resolutions 950 and 951 of 2025, but public commitments in a depreciating currency cannot substitute for the private fiber and tower deployment that inclusion conditions attached to billion-dollar projects would generate. The gap between who gets AI infrastructure and who gets reliable broadband is widening, not narrowing.
The Thirty-Year Lock Problem
Critics from multiple civil society organisations have identified a structural issue that extends beyond connectivity: the 30-year stability guarantee insulates every aspect of the deal — fiscal, customs, currency, and regulatory — against future legislative correction. Luciana Ghiotto of the Transnational Institute warns that the framework "blocks future regulatory corrections and exposes Argentina to international arbitration" if a future government attempts to impose inclusion requirements retroactively.
That concern is grounded in Argentine legal history. Stability clauses under the RIGI architecture are explicitly enforceable through international arbitration under Argentina's bilateral investment treaties. A future Congress that tries to attach connectivity obligations to existing Súper RIGI holders could face billion-dollar investor-state dispute settlement claims. What is absent from the bill today is therefore, in practical terms, absent for a generation.
Matías Bianchi of Asuntos del Sur captured the core civil society critique: the Súper RIGI offers "territory, natural resources and infrastructure without asking anything in return." The "digital extractivism" label deployed across multiple organisations — comparing the arrangement to the mineral concessions that have historically enriched multinationals while leaving resource-rich Argentine provinces without local development — may be polemical, but the structural observation is accurate.
Proportionate Incentives Require Proportionate Returns
The right response is not to defeat the Súper RIGI in the Senate. Attracting AI infrastructure at scale is a legitimate sovereign priority, and 30-year fiscal stability is a genuine prerequisite for the long-horizon capital commitments this legislation targets. Regulatory uncertainty is a real cost that deters real investment.
But proportionate incentive design — the standard that distinguishes durable investment law from regulatory capture — attaches public benefits to public subsidies. The Senate now holds the opportunity to insert what the Chamber omitted: a domestic capacity reserve analogous to REDATA's 10% floor; a technology-transfer or R&D contribution tied to project value; provincial weighting requirements directing a share of investment toward underserved northern regions; and water and energy efficiency conditions that reflect the outsized infrastructure footprint of hyperscale AI facilities.
Argentina can compete for the next generation of AI infrastructure. The question before the Senate is whether it will negotiate as a sovereign or simply as a landlord.