Meta Collaborates with Former Oculus Founder’s Company to Develop Premier AR and VR Systems for the US Military

Woah, so get this: Palmer Luckey—you know that dude who kicked off the whole Oculus VR craze?—has got his company, Anduril, teaming up with Meta (yep, the Facebook guys) to do some wild stuff with AR and VR for the military. I mean, who saw that coming?

Anyway, Luckey’s story is like, legendary in the tech world, right? He starts Oculus back in 2012, really when VR was just pie-in-the-sky for most folks. Facebook scoops it up in 2014 for a crazy $2 billion. Fast forward, and Luckey’s out because, well, politics. That stuff’s messy and probably worthy of its own gossip column. But he doesn’t just stop there, nah, he kicks off Anduril—a defense tech thing that’s buzzing with innovation. Drones, sensors, you name it, they’re on it.

So in February, Anduril says to Microsoft, “We got this,” and takes over their AR helmet project for the Army. Why does Microsoft always seem to have such a rough time with this stuff? Anyway—wait, where was I? Oh right, Luckey and Meta are now besties again.

Apparently, they’re aiming for “the world’s best” AR and VR tech. Can you imagine soldiers with AR helmets making them look and act like something out of a sci-fi flick? The announcement was all official-sounding, saying it’s privately funded and somehow saves mad cash for the military. Tech for the win?

Luckey, sounding super thrilled, chimes in with something about turning soldiers into technomancers. Like he’s Merlin with a VR headset or something. How cool is that?

And here’s a plot twist: Meta’s head honchos, Zuckerberg and Bosworth—remember how they and Luckey weren’t exactly on speaking terms?—they’re now sharing the same quotes page, all smiles and handshakes, it seems. That’s a wild turn of events if you ask me.

So there we are—back to AR helmets and soldier tech. What do you suppose the future holds with this crew at the helm? War is changing, and it’s got a VR headset on. Boom.