In der Businessweek ist ein langes lesenswertes Porträt über Peter Thiel erschienen.
One of Thiel's frequent themes is the folly of promoting "extensive" gains over "intensive" breakthroughs. He believes that governments and investors have an "extensive" bias when it comes to science and technology, a desire to replicate or "extend" what has already been shown to work. He perceives a dangerous shortage of the kinds of ambitious, "intensive" innovations he says are ultimately necessary for long-term growth. "My thesis is that the world is too heavily geared in the extensive direction," he says. "It's what everyone would like: a sure thing, something that gets a predictable return. I don't think that model is the right one for our world anymore. But the alternative is necessarily quite risky. And so there's no safe alternative."
Thiel, der zu den Gründern von PayPal gehörte, ist spätestens seit seiner legendären Investition in Facebook, die am ROI gemessen wohl das erfolgreichste Investment der Geschichte ist, zu einem der bekanntesten VC-Investoren der Welt geworden, wenn nicht der bekannteste.