Meta Partners with Palmer Luckey’s Anduril Years After Zuckerberg Fired Him for Supporting Trump
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta and Anduril have joined forces to create VR and AR headsets for the U.S. military, years after Meta fired its former VR chief Palmer Luckey, who founded Anduril, for supporting Donald Trump.
The Wall Street Journalreports that Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has announced a partnership with defense firm Anduril to develop a line of rugged helmets, glasses, and wearables that provide VR and AR technology for the U.S. Army. The collaboration marks a significant shift in Meta’s stance on defense work and brings together two unlikely partners: a social media giant often scrutinized by the federal government and a rising star in the Pentagon’s vendor list, led by Palmer Luckey, who Mark Zuckerberg once fired over politics.
The new system, named EagleEye, will feature sensors that enhance soldiers’ hearing and vision, allowing them to detect drones from miles away or identify hidden targets. Additionally, the devices will enable soldiers to operate and interact with AI-powered weapon systems. The technology will be underpinned by Anduril’s autonomy software and Meta’s AI models.
This partnership is particularly noteworthy given the history between Meta and Anduril’s founder, Palmer Luckey. Luckey, who founded Oculus VR at age 15, became a billionaire when Facebook (now Meta) acquired his company in 2014. However, Zuckerberg fired Luckey in 2017 following the 2016 election. Luckey’s support for Donald Trump and his enthusiasm for building lethal tech for the military made him an anomaly in Silicon Valley at the time.
As Breitbart News previously reported:
In an article titled “Why Did Facebook Fire a Top Executive? Hint: It Had Something to Do With Trump,” the Wall Street Journal investigates why Facebook chose to fire Palmer Luckey, one of the companies top executives and founder of Oculus VR. It was during the 2016 presidential election that Luckey’s political views became known after donating $10,000 to an anti-Hillary Clinton group called Nimble America, six months after this donation Luckey was out at Facebook.
Mark Zuckerberg was asked about Luckey’s firing from the company when questioned by Congress, he denied it had anything to do with politics. However, Luckey claims that following his donation to the anti-Hillary group Zuckerberg pressured him to express his support for the Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson rather than President Trump.
Despite their past differences, both leaders see the importance of this collaboration. Luckey stated, “This is way too important of a capability for the United States military to let the last vestiges of a decade-old pissing contest get in the way.” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg echoed this sentiment, saying that the EagleEye technology will help U.S. soldiers “protect our interests at home and abroad.”
The partnership also highlights the evolving relationship between Silicon Valley and the defense industry. In recent months, Meta has recruited former Pentagon staff and opened up its AI models for military applications, signaling a new business line for the company. Anduril, meanwhile, has been forming partnerships with major tech companies like OpenAI, Oracle, and Palantir Technologies to expand its offerings to the Pentagon.
Meta and Anduril have jointly bid on an Army contract for VR hardware devices, worth up to $100 million. If awarded, it would be Meta’s most significant tie-up with the Defense Department to date. The contract is part of a larger $22 billion Army wearables project, for which Anduril became the lead vendor in February after Microsoft failed to deliver a functional VR headset.
Regardless of the outcome of the Army contract bid, Anduril has stated that the collaboration on the headsets will move forward, as the companies have already mostly funded the project itself. Anduril believes that other parts of the military will also be interested in the technology.
Read more at the Wall Street Journal here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
