Argentina is moving to become the first country in the world to grant legal personhood to companies run entirely by artificial intelligence. In a bill sent to Congress and a high-profile Financial Times op-ed published June 4, President Javier Milei proposed creating a brand-new corporate category — the "non-human corporation" — an entity operated by AI agents or robots in which human shareholders are optional rather than required.
The reform, championed by Deregulation Minister Federico Sturzenegger, would rewrite Argentina's General Companies Law (Law 19.550), one of the foundational statutes of the country's economy. If approved, legal counsel at BDO say it would be the first legislation of its kind anywhere in the world.
Key Highlights
- Milei's plan rests on three pillars: a commitment to keep AI development unregulated, the creation of the "non-human corporation" legal category, and a low corporate tax rate.
- Non-human corporations would be operated exclusively by AI agents or robots, able to own assets, sign contracts, and pay taxes — with human participation as shareholders possible but not required.
- The bill also introduces the "automated company" and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) that record operations on blockchain and execute through smart contracts.
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman publicly backed the vision; critics warn it builds a system of "programmed impunity."
Details
In the op-ed, headlined "Argentina invites AI to free itself," Milei argued that AI businesses deserve the same legal scaffolding that has underpinned capitalism for centuries. "Companies run by new technologies such as AI agents require the same legal framework that has underpinned capitalism for over four centuries, one suitable for development and experimentation," he wrote.
The reform creates two notable new structures. An "automated company" is defined as one "that can operate completely autonomously through algorithms or artificial intelligence, without the need for employees for its day-to-day operations." Separately, the bill recognizes DAOs — organizations that record their activity on a blockchain and follow predefined rules encoded in smart contracts.
Milei reached for historical analogy to frame the stakes, comparing the moment to the 1602 founding of the Dutch East India Company and positioning Buenos Aires as "for AI what Amsterdam was for the age of sail." His pitch to global technology firms was blunt: "We are open for business."
Impact
The economic logic is aggressive. Backers of the framework argue that AI agents could eventually capture a large share of global economic output, and Argentina wants the legal infrastructure in place to host that activity onshore. Early prototypes already exist: an autonomous on-chain agent created by activist-technologist Santiago Siri operates as a tokenized entity on the Base network, managing smart contracts and decentralized finance activity as a "live production prototype."
For a country with roughly 20% crypto adoption — driven by decades of inflation and currency instability — the proposal aligns with a broader deregulation agenda that has drawn interest from Silicon Valley investors, including a reported April 2026 meeting between Milei and Peter Thiel.
Background
The legislation, formally submitted to the Senate as a draft General Companies Law intended to replace Law 19.550, would let software entities function as fully independent corporate bodies. Sam Altman framed the initiative as advancing Milei's vision of "how AI could drive Argentina's growth and creativity."
But the proposal has triggered alarm among legal scholars and civil-society groups. AI specialist Ariel Garbarz warned that combining non-human corporations with full AI deregulation would produce "programmed impunity: human gains, social harm and responsibility shifted onto machines." Critics point out that even the most permissive corporate jurisdictions, such as the Marshall Islands, still require an identifiable human registered agent as a point of contact and accountability. Removing that anchor, they argue, leaves no one to hold responsible when an autonomous company causes harm.
What's Next
The bill now sits before Argentina's Congress, where debate over liability, data protection, transparency, and tax treatment is expected to be contentious. The outcome carries weight far beyond Argentina: if the law passes, it would set the first global precedent for AI agents as legal persons — a question regulators in the United States, the European Union, and the Gulf are watching closely.
For technology hubs across the MENA region, where governments are racing to position themselves as destinations for AI investment and autonomous-agent infrastructure, Argentina's experiment is an early test case in how — and whether — to give machines a seat at the corporate table.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald