The way forward for Venezuela stays unclear after the U.S. launched a floor assault and ousted President Nicolas Maduro over the weekend. However amid the uncertainty, some buyers see the potential for profitable, long-term alternatives within the South American nation that has lengthy been closed to a lot worldwide enterprise.
No less than Charles Myers, chairman of the consulting agency Signum World Advisors, thinks so.
“It is a main infrastructure play, I feel it may very well be as huge as $500 billion over the following 10 years,” Myers mentioned on Monday on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Road.”
“I feel persons are being far too pessimistic. It is a huge alternative throughout a number of sectors,” mentioned Myers, who’s organizing a visit to Venezuela with “buyers, multinationals, and asset managers” that’s set for March.
He didn’t title the others who would accompany him on the journey, which he mentioned is being organized impartial of the State Division and the U.S. authorities.
Others view the state of affairs as extra fraught.
Maduro and his spouse, Cilia Flores, have been captured and delivered to the U.S. on Jan. 3. President Donald Trump mentioned within the aftermath that the U.S. would run Venezuela and in an interview with The Atlantic threatened that Appearing President Delcy Rodriguez would “pay a really huge worth, most likely greater than Maduro,” if she opposed his administration’s actions.
Rodriguez at first pushed again on Trump’s feedback however extra not too long ago has signaled an openness to work with the U.S.
Till extra particulars emerge on the state of Venezuela post-Maduro, some nonetheless see the nation as closed for enterprise.
“When you concentrate on the laws that have been in place, the investing setting, nothing’s modified – not but anyway.” mentioned Robert Koenigsberger, managing companion and chief funding officer of Gramercy Funds Administration.
“An investor cannot merely simply fly to Caracas – if the airport have been opened — and simply begin knocking on doorways and assembly folks, and say, ‘hey,'” he mentioned. “Venezuela is plagued by sanctioned people.”
Myers famous that international funding will largely be contingent on safety ensures, although he mentioned the U.S. navy presence off the coast of Venezuela is reassuring. And he acknowledged that sanctions are a limiting issue, although he mentioned he wouldn’t be stunned to see a few of these lifted within the coming months.
An additional opening up of the nation — like Venezuela’s return to the debt capital markets and the reactivation of the Caracas Inventory Trade — might spur even larger funding down the road, he mentioned.
“This isn’t a brief time period investor journey. It is an opportunity to get in and actually kick the tires,” Myers mentioned.
Nonetheless, within the speedy aftermath of Maduro’s overthrow, oil and gasoline firms appeared poised to learn, although main gamers like Chevron, Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips have largely been silent as their shares rise.
Chevron shares jumped 5% as the one U.S. firm working within the nation presently was seen by some buyers as an eventual huge winner if the nation’s oil infrastructure is rebuilt. The transfer made Chevron the largest gainer within the Dow Jones Industrial common on Monday.
Venezuela has the most important confirmed oil reserves on the earth, however most U.S. oil majors have been shut in another country since former President Hugo Chavez seized U.S. belongings in 2007.
President Donald Trump, in a press convention on Saturday referred to as for U.S. main oil firms to take a position billions of {dollars} within the nation to rebuild their infrastructure.
However the alternatives in Venezuela prolong nicely past oil and gasoline, Myers mentioned, and people planning to accompany him come from the development, autos, protection and chemical compounds mining sectors as nicely.
“After which on the asset administration facet, it is hedge funds and a few long-only buyers and presumably sovereign wealth funds,” Myers mentioned.
Myers has led related journeys lately to war-torn nations within the midst of political upheaval. In October 2025, he took 27 shoppers to Damascus, Syria after Trump lifted sanctions on the nation, which had been embroiled in civil struggle for greater than a decade. And earlier in 2025, Myers led a visit to Ukraine that included TCW Funds, Lazard and Siemens, Bloomberg reported.
“Persons are making an attempt to check Venezuela to Iraq,” Myers mentioned. “The extra related analogy we predict is definitely both Jap Germany within the 90s, or Hungary/Poland, as these economies transitioned from being communist to capitalist.”
CNBC’s Spencer Kimball contributed reporting to this report.
