Peter Thiel rose to fame by launching PayPal and funding a little upstart called Facebook. You'll find his fingerprints on—and his seed money in—everything from DNA manipulation to Hollywood movies along with any Silicon Valley enterprise worth knowing about. Now the 43-year-old gay libertarian is embarking on his most ambitious venture: a start-up country on the open ocean that will be governed by his Ayn Rand–inspired ideology. Will it be Thiel's crowing achievement or the biggest bust since
Waterworld?
read more