Alright, so here’s a thing. Picture this: Palmer Luckey, yeah that guy, the one who jumpstarted this VR crazy ride with Oculus back in 2012. Fast forward a bit, Facebook (or should I say Meta now?) couldn’t help themselves and snagged Oculus for a cool $2 billion feels like Monopoly money, right? Anyway, things went south for Luckey there, politics and whatnot – a whole mess, but kinda juicy if you ask me.
He dusts himself off, starts Anduril, a defense tech company. Sounds like something out of a sci-fi flick, but here we are. What’s wild (or obvious, I don’t know) is Anduril diving into this whole XR tech scene, along with the hardcore military gear – drones, sensors, all that jazz.
Wait! Did I mention Microsoft’s whole IVAS thing? Integrated Visual Augmentation System – mouthful, huh? Basically, it’s AR helmets for the Army – which, let’s be honest, sounds cooler than saying “smart helmets.” And in February, kaboom, Anduril swoops in to take this off Microsoft’s hands. No clue how that convo went, but I’m intrigued.
Now, here’s where it gets full circle weird. Anduril teams up with Meta! Yeah, same Meta that sort of tossed Luckey out on his ear. They’re on this mission to create, get this, “world’s best AR and VR systems” for the military. Bold, right? But hey, private funds, not taxpayer dimes, which someone somewhere will surely appreciate.
Luckey’s pretty jazzed, obviously. I mean, his vibe has always been making soldiers into tech wizards or, in his words, “technomancers.” (I swear I’ve seen that word in a video game before.)
Oh, and about the quotes from Mark Zuckerberg and Andrew “Boz” Bosworth – kind of feels like a family reunion where everyone’s trying too hard to be civil after some awkward years.
So yeah, expect them to be messing around with that IVAS helmet deal, a whopping $20 billion deal to replace helmets with AR magic. Microsoft started it, but Anduril’s grabbing the wheel now with Meta riding shotgun. Makes you wonder who’s DJing this road trip.
