Meta Collaborates with Former Oculus Founder’s Firm to Develop Top AR and VR Systems for US Military

Man, where do I even start with Palmer Luckey? This guy’s making his life story read like a thriller nobody saw coming. So, get this: his military tech gig, Anduril, just shook hands with Meta. Yeah, the same Meta that used to be Facebook. They’re all set to whip up the world’s top AR and VR doohickeys for the U.S. military. Dramatic, right?

Flashback to 2012, Luckey pulls Oculus out of thin air. That Rift headset? It kicks the whole VR thing into action. Fast forward a bit, and Meta (Facebook back then) snaps it up for a jaw-dropping two billion-plus. Luckey’s living the dream under Meta’s roof until politics decided to crash the party. They nudged him out the door, and next thing you know, he’s off building Anduril. Spoiler: it’s another billion-dollar baby.

Anduril, surprise surprise, is not just messing around with drones and sensors. Nope, they’re neck-deep in XR tech too. Jump to February, and they’re suddenly steering — what was it? Ah, Microsoft’s IVAS. You know, that AR helmet project for American soldiers. Sounded a bit rocky, from what I gathered.

A picture pops into my head of one of those gadgets: this helmet. It’s supposed to make you some sort of super-soldier. Maybe? Maybe not. (I’m not an army kind of person, so I’m just spitballing here.)

Now, Anduril’s all cozy with Meta like no drama ever happened. Imagine trying that move in real life, right? They’re talking about how they’re gonna come up with these game-changing XR products for the battlefield. Think dual-use tech, but I think they just wanna play with cool AR toys and wear camo while doing it.

Palmer’s stoked. And who can blame him? He mentions something about wanting soldiers to become techno-wizards — technomancers, he calls them. Imagining a wizard with a VR headset just made my day.

Oh, did I mention Mark Zuckerberg and his CTO, Boz something, are all chummy with Luckey again? Talk about burying the hatchet. Or maybe they swapped it for a VR controller. Makes you wonder what goes on behind the scenes in these tech titans’ lives, doesn’t it?

Anyway — where was I? Right, so this new collaboration is all about that IVAS thing, which sounds like a massive $20 billion deal. Anduril’s leading now, but Meta’s tech is maybe the secret sauce. If you squint, you can almost see a soldier with one of these helmets on, navigating some virtual map.

And that’s it, folks. A wild ride for sure. This guy Luckey’s story is like a soap opera for tech nerds. Can’t wait for the next episode.