Okay, so picture this: Palmer Luckey, the guy who kick-started virtual reality with Oculus, is now teaming up with Meta to deck out the US military with top-notch AR and VR gear. Yep, that same Meta (formerly Facebook) that bought his thing for over $2 billion back in 2014. It’s like a script from a tech-drama series waiting to happen. I mean, seriously, can you see all the plot twists?
Anyway, let’s back up a bit. Palmer got the boot from Meta over some political kerfuffle and went off to create a defense startup called Anduril. Imagine leaving VR that makes you feel like you’re in a game and jumping into tech that actually deals with real warzones. Quite the career pivot. Now, Anduril isn’t just flying drones around or messing with sensors. Nuh-uh. They’re diving headfirst into extended reality tech (that’s XR if you wanna sound fancy) – and they’re good at it. So good that they’ve taken the reins on Microsoft’s struggling effort to make AR helmets for the Army.
Here’s the kicker: Anduril’s roped Meta back in for this ride, promising to whip up the “world’s best” AR/VR systems for Uncle Sam’s military folks. Can you even believe it? Luckey says these new toys will turn soldiers into “technomancers.” Kind of sounds like something out of a sci-fi video game, right? And he isn’t just dreaming — Meta’s top dogs like Mark Zuckerberg and Andrew “Boz” Bosworth are back in the picture, making this partnership almost surreal given their past with Luckey.
Oh, and don’t think this is taxpayers footing the bill. Nope. This whole endeavor is privately funded. They even say it’s gonna save billions. Maybe. We’ll see.
The big project in question is this crazy $20 billion program to make an AR helmet for the Army called IVAS. That’s what Anduril and Meta are knee-deep in now. How that turns out? Who knows. But that mix of tech wizards and military brass is bound to be a wild ride, you’ve gotta admit.
