He is obsessed with atoms. Peter Thiel, a prescient venture capitalist, has said that the Manhattan Project, which created the first atomic bomb, epitomised how America’s government used to “get things done”. He has long argued that an excessive focus on “bits” (software) at the expense of “atoms” (hardware) has helped produce economic stagnation in America. In 2015 he wrote that the country needed “a new atomic age” to produce clean, abundant energy. A decade on he has friends at the top of President Donald Trump’s administration who share his vision. It is starting to fall into place.
