I grew up thinking of Palmer Luckey as the kid behind Oculus VR and recently discovered he has been up to a lot since then so took a couple notes of interest.
Luckey now heads Anduril Industries, a part of Silicon Valley’s relatively new foray into the defense industry.
Luckey and Stephens discovered a shared interest in seeking defense contracts for companies built like tech startups. “Stephens found it ridiculous that almost no venture-backed companies worked closely with the government; with its billions of dollars to spend”, aside from Palantir and SpaceX.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anduril_Industries
US-Mexico Border
After donating both to the Trump 2016 campaign and the inaugural celebration, Luckey founded Anduril Industries with its first project: a “virtual border wall” surveillance system. He had been discussing founding a company with his co-founder Trae Stephens for years, who was also brought on to Trump’s transition team for the Defense Department by Peter Thiel.
https://www.wired.com/story/palmer-luckey-anduril-border-wall
Israel
He sees dollar signs in the state of Israel.
Luckey described himself to me as a “radical Zionist,” and thinks many of his “well-meaning but less-Israel-aligned colleagues” are missing key parts of what the country means—for Jews, but also for the balance of power. For one, Luckey’s belief in the political benefits of the future he imagines—in which U.S. military aid to Ukraine, say, becomes both cheaper and more effective when built around Anduril-like products—applies doubly to Israel, which has the unique honor of being both a plausible spark for a potential great power war, and the single most toxic issue in American domestic politics (these are two separate privileges).
https://www.tabletmag.com/feature/american-vulcan-palmer-luckey-anduril
Taiwan
As well as in Taiwan.
The defense tech startup argues that the size of China’s military, economy, and technology sector makes it inevitable that it will soon challenge the U.S. on all those fronts. The solution, it says, is developing and building faster and smarter drones, submersibles, and missile systems — the sort of weapons systems in which Anduril specializes — that can be deployed quicker, cheaper, and more widely than legacy defense systems such as aircraft carriers, fighter jets, and submarines.
https://www.semafor.com/article/08/03/2023/the-startup-with-a-plan-to-defend-taiwan
Arms Dealer Aesthetic
You can’t deny that he looks the part. Do you think he revels in it?