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Palmer Luckey Aims to Make America Safe Again with Anduril AR/VR Defense Company

The co-founder of Oculus is now back in Orange County with an 'Advanced Defense' company. This isn't how supervillains are born, nope.

Asif Khan

October 23, 2017 9:50 AM

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Everyone's favorite VR wunderkind Palmer Luckey made some news this weekend on social media as he announced that his new AR/VR defense company,  Anduril Industries, is now hiring. 

Here is some more info about Anduril Industries:

In many ways, we are living in the future. Instantaneous communication with anyone in the world, all of humanity’s knowledge accessible in your pocket, next-day delivery of any physical good you can imagine, and many other advances have radically changed the way we live our lives. By comparison, progress in defense has lagged since the end of the Cold War.

We need the world’s brightest minds building technologies that fundamentally advance mankind and deter international conflict. Anduril is privately funding and building products that America and her allies desperately need: real-time battlefield awareness for soldiers on the ground and headquarters alike, technology that keeps our men and women on the front line out of harm’s way, and a host of other technologies that will ensure we are staying ahead of our adversaries.

HOW

The central fallacy of the political debate surrounding defense spending is that we are stuck in a dichotomy between doing “more with more” or “less with less”. This is a false choice: if we build the right technology, we should be able to do more with less. As a product-focused company that funds and builds our own technology, we are not beholden to the typical cost-plus contract structure, which rewards slow and expensive development of bespoke technology.

Anduril is founded by Silicon Valley veterans who know how to do things the right way, focusing on product rather than process.  We are using lessons learned from our previous experiences to bring better capabilities at dramatically lower cost to America and her allies. 

Do you love America enough to sign up for whatever it is Anduril Industries is working on? There are several folks who have followed Palmer over from Oculus and other Silicon Valley companies. The company is based back in Luckey's old stomping grounds of Orange County, California. The 'OC' is one of the centers of the military industrial complex so it is not surprising to see the company pop up there.

Palmer Luckey is only listed as a founder and will probably continue to leverage his popularity to make more news in the defense industry. Anduril Industries describes themselves as an advanced defense company and will not just be focused on military technology, but also technology for use here at home. 

Definitely not going to end up as a supervillain.

Asif Khan

CEO/EIC/EIEIO

Asif Khan is the CEO, EIC, and majority shareholder of Shacknews. He began his career in video game journalism as a freelancer in 2001 for Tendobox.com. Asif is a CPA and was formerly an investment adviser representative. After much success in his own personal investments, he retired from his day job in financial services and is currently focused on new private investments. His favorite PC game of all time is Duke Nukem 3D, and he is an unapologetic fan of most things Nintendo. Asif first frequented the Shack when it was sCary's Shugashack to find all things Quake. When he is not immersed in investments or gaming he is a purveyor of fine electronic music. Asif also has an irrational love of Cleveland sports.