Milo Yiannopoulos, the former tech editor at Breitbart, has made political provocations, often deeply offensive ones, a business model. But his career seemed to come crashing down in recent months when one of his speaking appearances, at the University of California, Berkeley, led to riots. Weeks later, videos emerged of Yiannopoulos seeming to condone pedophilia. (“I do not support pedophilia. Period. It is a vile and disgusting crime, perhaps the very worst,” Yiannopoulos said in a statement on Facebook at the time.)

Yet his allies turned on him. Yiannopoulos was subsequently forced out of Breitbart in disgrace. The American Conservative Union disinvited him from CPAC, and Simon & Schuster canceled a six-figure book deal.

But as the free-speech conflagration he ignited at Berkeley continues to burn, Yiannopoulos is planning a way back in. Days after releasing a video touting his return to the campus, Yiannopoulos told the Hive that he would be launching a new media venture in the coming weeks with what he says is a $12 million investment from backers whose identities he is protecting. (Yiannopoulos showed me a page from the contract with the investors' names blacked out.) Another person involved with the company, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, was similarly secretive: "Milo has the best instincts about these things," he said.

The business, which will be called Milo Inc., will be even more focused on stoking the sort of ugly political conflict that's closer to the surface than ever in these early months of the Trump administration. As Fox News remains busy with its latest scandal, Milo Inc. promises to be the latest incumbent in a growing far-right media sphere that is overwhelmingly populated with politically incorrect, and often jarring, provocations once considered verboten by conservatives. Yiannopolos will compete not only against sites such as TheBlaze and Alex Jones's Infowars but also against his very own former employer, Breitbart, which has become a formidable force in the space after its former chairman, Steve Bannon, helped usher Trump to victory and later joined his administration. Yiannopoulos, for his part, is relying on a formula that he employed at Breitbart. He said that Milo Inc. would be dedicated to “making the lives of journalists, professors, politicians, feminists, Black Lives Matter activists, and other professional victims a living hell.”

Milo Inc., according to a press release, will be based in Miami, with a planned staff of 30. It will be in the business of what can be best described as corporatized trolling via live entertainment, with Yiannopoulos and his investors hosting events featuring right-wing talent. “The business of Madonna became touring,” said Yiannopoulos in a phone interview, citing the artist’s deal with Live Nation. “I’m doing the same thing, but instead of signing up with Live Nation, I’m building one. I’m building it for libertarian and conservative comedians, writers, stand-up comics, intellectuals, you name it.”

Milo Inc.'s first event will be a return to the town that erupted in riots when he was invited to speak earlier this year. In fact, Yiannopoulos said that he is planning a “week-long celebration of free speech” near U.C. Berkeley, where a speech by his fellow campus agitator, Ann Coulter, was recently canceled after threats of violence. It will culminate in his bestowing something called the Mario Savio Award for Free Speech. (The son of Savio, one of the leaders of Berkeley's Free Speech movement during the mid-1960s, called the award “some kind of sick joke”.)

Initially, Yiannopolos will be the company's main talent. “I’m the proof of concept,” he said, but added that he hoped to eventually expand the company. “The thing about me is that I have access to a talent pipeline that no one else even knows about. All the funniest, smartest, most interesting young YouTubers and all the rest of them who hate feminism, who hate political correctness. This generation that’s coming up, it’s about 13, 14, 15, now have very different politics than most other generations. They love us. They love me, and I’m going to be actively hunting around for the next Milo.”