Meta Partners with Anduril to Develop AI-Powered AR Headsets for U.S. Military

In a victory for Palmer Luckey, Meta and Anduril work on mixed reality headsets for the military | TechCrunch

On Thursday, Anduril and Meta announced news that feels like a fairy tale ending for Anduril co-founder, Palmer Luckey. The two companies are working together to build extended reality (XR) devices for the U.S. military, Anduril announced in a blog post. "I am glad to be working with Meta once again," Luckey is quoted as saying in the post. "My mission has long been to turn warfighters into technomancers, and the products we are building with Meta do just that." This partnership stems from the Soldier Borne Mission Command Next (SBMC) program, formerly called the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) Next. IVAS was a massive military contract, with a total $22 billion budget, originally awarded to Microsoft in 2018 intended to develop Hololens-like AR glasses for soldiers. But after endless problems, in February the Army stripped management of the program from Microsoft and awarded it to Anduril, with Microsoft staying on as a cloud provider. The intent is to eventually have multiple suppliers of mixed reality glasses for soldiers. All of this meant that if Luckey's former employer, Meta, wanted to tap into the potentially lucrative world of military VR/AR/XR headsets, it would need to go through Anduril. The devices will be based on tech out of Meta's AR/VR research center Reality Labs, the post says. They'll use Meta's Llma AI model, and they will tap into Anduril's command and control software known as Lattice. The idea is to provide soldiers with a heads-up display of battlefield intelligence in real time. Luckey is apparently feeling good about this reconciliation. He was, of course, famously fired from Facebook in 2017, about three years after Facebook bought his startup Oculus for $2 billion. This came after Luckey was embroiled in a brouhaha over his support for Donald Trump in his 2016 election. Luckey turned around and founded Anduril in 2017, with co-founders Brian Schimpf, Trae Stephens, Matt Grimm. An Anduril spokesperson tells TechCrunch that the product family Meta and Anduril are building is even called EagleEye, which will be an ecosystem of devices. EagleEye is what Luckey named Anduril's first imagined headset in Anduril's pitch deck draft, before his investors convinced him to focus on building software first. "All of them had worked with me for years via Oculus VR, and when they saw the EagleEye headset in our first Anduril pitch deck draft, they pointed out that it seemed like I was sequencing things irrationally. They believed, correctly, that I was too focused on winning a pissing contest over the future of AR/VR, on proving that I was right and the people who fired me were wrong," Luckey tweeted in February after winning the IVAS contract After Thursday's news, Luckey posted on X: "It is pretty cool to have everything at our fingertips for this joint effort - everything I made before Meta acquired Oculus, everything we made together, and everything we did on our own after I was fired." And to show that Luckey has really buried the hatchet, he said Anduril has even launched a Facebook page.

Meta is now a defense contractor

Giving people the power to build community and bring the world closer together so we can shoot them Meta has partnered with Anduril Industries, eight years after firing the defense firm's founder, Palmer Luckey. Luckey joined Meta when it was still called Facebook following the social media company's 2014 acquisition of Oculus, the virtual reality headset biz he founded. He left the then-Facebook branded corp in 2017, with some reports stating his $10,000 political donation to an anti-Hillary Clinton group in the runup to the 2016 presidential election had been a factor. Others alleged he'd faced pressure to publicly endorse libertarian candidate Gary Johnson instead of his preferred candidate Donald Trump. A Facebook spokesperson denied that Palmer's departure was political back in 2018, when the Wall Street Journal made that claim. Whatever the case, Meta's donation of $1 million to the Trump inaugural fund in December 2024 was by definition political. The goal of the Meta-Anduril tie-up is to make some money selling XR - extended reality - products, something that has eluded Meta since it adopted the name to signal its focus on monetizing the metaverse and, by some accounts, to distance itself from the brand damage that tarnished Facebook in the wake of various privacy and moderation scandals. Meta's Reality Labs lost $4.2 billion in Q1 2025 and has flushed away similar sums - between $1.83 billion and $4.97 billion - every quarter since Q4 2020 when Reality Labs was formed. According to the Financial Times, Meta has invested $80 billion in various flavors of reality - virtual, augmented, mixed, and extended - since its 2014 Oculus acquisition, and is expected to spend another $20 billion by the end of 2025. Perhaps the US military, with a proposed budget that tops $1 trillion this year, will help generate some return on that investment. "Meta has spent the last decade building AI and AR to enable the computing platform of the future," said Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Meta, in a statement. "We're proud to partner with Anduril to help bring these technologies to the American servicemembers that protect our interests at home and abroad." The business of head-mounted tech appliances has proven to be a tough one. In 2014, Google gambled that Google Glass would appeal to people with its cyborg-chic and managed to spawn the term Glasshole before the consumer and enterprise versions were cancelled in 2015 and 2023 respectively. Microsoft's HoloLens enjoyed a slightly longer market arc, starting in 2015 until it was discontinued in late 2024. And in February, 2025, Redmond handed its US Army Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) contract over to Andruil. Apple's $3,499 Vision Pro - a "spatial computer" rather than a VR headset - lasted about a year before reportedly being cancelled. Even so, Google intends to try again with computer-infused eyewear in the form of traditional glasses, with the help of spectacle biz Warby Parker. Apple is said to be developing smart glasses, or gla$$e$ per the company's preferred margins. And Microsoft at least has thought about smart glasses, having filed relevant patents in 2024. Apple, Google, and Microsoft perhaps have noted that the face-computing space isn't entirely moribund: Ray-Ban Meta glasses sold 2 million units from their October 2023 launch through the end of 2024, according to RayBan parent EssilorLuxottica [PDF]. Anduril and Meta anticipate that their tie-up will allow the companies to benefit from their mutual competencies in software, hardware, and artificial intelligence to produce tools that warfighters will find useful. "The world is entering a new era of computing that will give people access to limitless intelligence and extend their senses and perception in ways that have never been possible before," said Meta CEO Andrew Bosworth in a statement. "Our national security benefits enormously from American industry bringing these technologies to life." The companies expect to deliver mixed reality capabilities through Anduril's Lattice platform, a command-and-control system that integrates AI to surface real-time battlefield intelligence via AR/VR interfaces. The idea is to put useful data within soldiers' fields of views to facilitate better decision-making in combat scenarios. Luckey, for his part, sounds as if he bears no ill-will toward his former employer. "I am glad to be working with Meta once again," he said in a statement. "Of all the areas where dual-use technology can make a difference for America, this is the one I am most excited about. My mission has long been to turn warfighters into technomancers, and the products we are building with Meta do just that." ®

Meta and Anduril defense startup partner on VR, AR project intended for U.S. Army

Palmer Luckey, Founder @ Oculus VR Andutil Industries, during day two of Collision 2019 at Enercare Center in Toronto, Canada. Meta and Anduril, the defense-tech startup founded by Palmer Luckey, announced Thursday that they've formed a partnership to create virtual and augmented reality devices intended for use by the U.S. army. The partnership represents a major step by Meta to supply cutting-edge technology to the government in addition to working once again with Luckey, who sold his Oculus VR startup to the social media company for $2 billion in 2014. Luckey and Meta had an acrimonious split, with the Anduril founder telling CNBC in 2019 that he "got fired" from the company formerly known as Facebook "for no reason at all," suggesting that a $10,000 donation to a pro-Donald Trump group ahead of the 2016 U.S. election could have contributed to the decision. With Trump winning the U.S. presidency in November for the second time, Zuckerberg and other tech executives have since courted favor with the White House by making sweeping policy changes like relaxing content-moderation guidelines. Meta has also been pitching its open-source Llama family of AI models to government agencies and in November said it would make the those tools available to government units "working on defense and national security applications, and private sector partners supporting their work." "Meta has spent the last decade building AI and AR to enable the computing platform of the future," Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. "We're proud to partner with Anduril to help bring these technologies to the American service members that protect our interests at home and abroad." In February, Anduril and Microsoft said that the defense tech startup would take over the enterprise giant's AR headset program with the U.S. army. Meta and Anduril have placed a joint bid on an Army contract for VR devices that is worth up to $100 million, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The two companies are working on EagleEye, a system that carries sensors that enhance soldiers' hearing and vision, according to the report. Meta and Anduril will move forward on their partnership whether or not they win the Army contract, per the Journal. The two companies pitched their partnership as helping the U.S. maintain a "technical edge" while aiding national security and saving the military "billions of dollars by utilizing high-performance components and technology originally built for commercial use." "I am glad to be working with Meta once again." Luckey said in a statement. "Of all the areas where dual-use technology can make a difference for America, this is the one I am most excited about." Anduril also announced in December that it partnered with OpenAI on an artificial-intelligence initiative related to "national security missions."

Meta enters battlefield tech with AI, AR headset for the Army

The collaboration will integrate Meta's AI and AR technology with Anduril's battlefield analytics platform, Lattice, to create wearable systems that enable soldiers to control autonomous machines and access real-time combat intelligence. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company has spent the last decade developing AI and AR as part of "the computing platform of the future." He added, "We're proud to partner with Anduril to help bring these technologies to the American service members that protect our interests at home and abroad." The announcement marks Meta's most visible step yet into national defense work, deepening ties with Washington at a time when tech companies are aligning more closely with the government under President Trump's second term. The new gear, expected to include AR goggles or visors, will give soldiers improved perception and control on the battlefield. Meta's hardware and AI tools will work with Anduril's Lattice, a system that pulls data from thousands of sources to deliver actionable intelligence. Soldiers will interact with this information through intuitive AR/VR interfaces built for combat conditions.

Meta is working on a high-tech helmet for the U.S. military

The social network company is partnering with weapons-maker Anduril to adapt its AI and virtual reality technology to assist soldiers. Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg became a billionaire by connecting people with their friends to share photos and memories. Now he wants to also connect U.S. soldiers on the battlefield to help them defeat their enemies. The company announced on Thursday that it will work with defense technology start-up Anduril to offer the U.S. military and its allies technology for soldiers involving augmented reality and artificial intelligence software. The venture sees a worldwide consumer brand integrated into the lives of billions of users around the globe expand into a line of business that requires picking sides. The partners aim to "transform how warfighters see, sense, and integrate battlefield information," Anduril said. The companies are already working on a high-tech helmet as part of a project called EagleEye, Anduril founder Palmer Luckey told the tech podcast Core Memory. Meta's new business initiative also reunites Zuckerberg with Palmer Luckey, the founder of the virtual reality company Oculus. In 2017, he left a high-profile position at the company then called Facebook, after public outcry over his $10,000 donation to an anti-Hillary Clinton organization. Luckey built the foundations of Meta's work on virtual reality following the company's acquisition of Oculus for $2 billion in 2014. After leaving the company, he co-founded Anduril, one of the most prominent among a wave of venture backed start-ups that has emerged as the importance of technology like drones and AI becomes apparent on the battlefields of Ukraine. "I am glad to be working with Meta once again," Luckey said in a statement. "My mission has long been to turn warfighters into technomancers, and the products we are building with Meta do just that." Zuckerberg said in his own statement that Meta was "proud to partner with Anduril to help bring these technologies to the American servicemembers that protect our interests at home and abroad." Meta's push to serve the military arrives as the company and its founder have attempted to rebrand themselves for President Donald Trump's second term. Since Trump's reelection, Zuckerberg has sought to strengthen his relationship with the president with flattering public comments, private meetings and a $1 million dollar donation by Meta to the president's inauguration committee. Meta has also made Republican-friendly policy changes including scrapping its fact-checking program, overhauling its content moderation strategy to be more permissive and ending diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mark Zuckerberg (@zuck) While Zuckerberg has remade Meta, his relationship with Luckey has also evolved. The VR entrepreneur left Facebook during Trump's first term as president, a time when many tech industry workers and their bosses were openly wary or even dismissive of Trump. News reports about Luckey's donation to a group that ran anti-Hillary Clinton ads sparked backlash among Facebook employees and the wider community of virtual reality developers. He departed soon after, though neither Luckey nor the company explained why. Andrew Bosworth, the former leader of Meta's virtual reality efforts, said at the time that politics had nothing to do with his departure. But Luckey told people he was fired over his political beliefs and support for Trump, The Wall Street Journal has reported. In September last year, before Trump's election victory, Luckey returned to Meta on a visit to try out the company's latest augmented reality powered glasses, called Orion. Afterward, Bosworth, now Meta's chief technology officer, publicly apologized to Luckey for his previous comments saying in a post on X, "I'm grateful for the impact you made at the company and in developing VR overall. Looking forward to showing you more of our work in the future." Luckey said in an episode of the Core Memory podcast released Thursday that Zuckerberg didn't fire him directly and that many of the people who made the decision have left the company. "When every single person that conspired to get rid of me has been run out of the company what is there really left to be truly angry at?" he said. Among the first projects the two companies plan to tackle is the EagleEye helmet for soldiers. Luckey described it as combining an AI assistant with communications and other functions. It will be an "ever-present companion who can operate systems, who can communicate with others, who you can off-load tasks onto ... that is looking out for you with more eyes than you could ever look out for yourself right there right there in your helmet," Luckey said. Anduril and Meta said they have submitted a joint white paper for an army contract for augmented reality devices that give U.S. soldiers "increased lethality, mobility, and situational awareness," according to a Defense Department listing for the project. The EagleEye system will improve soldiers' hearing and vision by helping them detect drones flying miles away or hidden targets, The Wall Street Journal reported. The project will rely on Anduril's autonomy software and Meta's AI models. Luckey said that effort will build off Anduril's work with on the U.S. Army's Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) program, where it has worked with Microsoft to develop an augmented reality-powered headset for soldiers. To aid the collaboration, Meta will draw on its hefty investments in AI models known as Llama and its virtual reality division, Reality Labs. The company has built several iterations of immersive headsets aimed at blending the physical and virtual worlds -- a concept known as the metaverse. Meta's new venture comes after a shift in recent years that has seen Silicon Valley companies once hesitant to work with the military cozy to the Pentagon. In November, Meta said it would allow U.S. government agencies and contractors working on national security applications to use its AI models. In 2018, Google declined to renew a deal to sell AI technology to the Pentagon after an employee revolt but it now speaks proudly of military contracts and recently dropped a pledge not to apply AI to surveillance or weaponry. Gerrit De Vynck contributed to this report.

Mark Zuckerberg's Meta is getting into military technology

American soldiers on the battlefield will soon be receiving a boost from Facebook. Meta (META-2.36%), Facebook's parent company, has entered into a partnership with defense technology company Anduril to design, build, and field a range of integrated extended reality (XR) products that provide soldiers with enhanced perception and enable intuitive control of autonomous platforms on the battlefield. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg described the partnership being a natural evolution for the company. "Meta has spent the last decade building AI and AR to enable the computing platform of the future," Zuckerberg said in a statement. "We're proud to partner with Anduril to help bring these technologies to the American servicemembers that protect our interests at home and abroad." Anduril CEO Palmer Luckey lauded the partnership as a needed technological boost to the military. "Of all the areas where dual-use technology can make a difference for America, this is the one I am most excited about," Luckey said. My mission has long been to turn warfighters into technomancers, and the products we are building with Meta do just that." Zuckerberg's move into military technology comes as he has attempted to court President Donald Trump, including rolling back DEI initiatives and donating $1 million to Trump's inauguration. Trump ally Dana White also joined Meta's board earlier this year. The UFC (EDR0.00%) boss is a friend of Zuckerberg, who has taken up martial arts as a hobby. Meta's development of military technology would appear to be fulfilling one of the company's goals outlined last year when when Nick Clegg, Meta's president of global affairs, said the company hopes to have "an active role in the debates that any administration needs to have about maintaining America's leadership in the technological sphere."

Meta to help develop new AI-powered military products

Alain Sherter is a senior managing editor with CBS News. He covers business, economics, money and workplace issues for CBS MoneyWatch. Meta is teaming with defense industry startup Anduril Industries to develop military products that use artificial intelligence and augmented reality, the companies announced on Thursday. Anduril said in a statement that the new products will provide "real-time battlefield intelligence" to soldiers in the field, allowing them to make decisions based on data. "This integration will transform how warfighters see, sense and integrate battlefield information," the company said. Palmer Luckey, the 32-year-old billionaire behind Anduril, said on social media that tapping into Meta's expertise in virtual and augmented reality technology will "save countless lives and dollars." Since launching in 2017, Anduril has sought to distinguish itself from defense industry contractors such as Boeing and Lockheed by highlighting its ability to both fund and develop products, rather than tapping federal funding. The California-based startup creates unmanned, autonomous weapons that use AI to identify and engage targets. Luckey is the co-founder of Oculus, the VR company that Meta, then called Facebook, bought in 2014 for $2.3 billion. "It's a scary idea, but, I mean, that's the world we live in," Luckey told correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi in a recent "60 Minutes" interview. "I'd say it's a lot scarier, for example, to imagine a weapons system that doesn't have any level of intelligence at all." "Meta has spent the last decade building AI and AR to enable the computing platform of the future," said Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Meta, said in a statement Thursday. "We're proud to partner with Anduril to help bring these technologies to the American servicemembers that protect our interests at home and abroad."

Meta and Anduril partner to develop wearables for the US military - SiliconANGLE

Meta and Anduril partner to develop wearables for the US military Meta Platforms Inc. and Anduril Industries Inc., a defense technology startup, are partnering to develop wearable devices for the U.S. military. The companies announced the initiative today. Anduril received a $14 billion valuation in its most recent funding round last year. The company develops aircraft, subsea sensors and other hardware systems for the defense sector. It also provides artificial intelligence software for powering that equipment. Anduril is led by Chief Executive Officer Palmer Luckey, who previously launched an early virtual reality startup called Oculus Labs Inc. The latter company was bought in 2014 by Meta, then Facebook Inc., for $2 billion. The acquisition formed the basis of the Reality Labs business unit that develops Meta's Quest mixed reality headsets. Reality Labs is set to participate in the new partnership with Anduril. According to the Wall Street Journal, the plan is to develop a line of wearables called EagleEye that will include rugged helmets, glasses and other devices. The systems are expected to provide virtual reality and mixed reality features. According to Anduril, EagleEye will enhance the wearer's hearing and vision. The devices in the series are also intended to provide users with the ability to remotely control autonomous systems. According to TechCrunch, EagleEye will use algorithms from Meta's Llama family of open-source language models. Most of the models in the series are designed to run on data center servers. There are also smaller neural networks, most notably the billion-parameter Llama-3.2-1B, that can run on resource-constrained devices such as virtual reality headsets. EagleEye will also incorporate Lattice, an operating system that Anduril ships with its products. The software provides users with access to data collected by defense systems. Anduril says that Lattice can collect information from thousands of sources. The operating system is powered by a networking engine called Lattice Mesh. According to Anduril, the technology allows devices to exchange data with one another over encrypted connections. In situations where bandwidth is limited, Lattice Mesh automatically prioritizes the most important traffic. "The world is entering a new era of computing that will give people access to limitless intelligence and extend their senses and perception in ways that have never been possible before," said Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth. "Our national security benefits enormously from American industry bringing these technologies to life." Meta and Anduril have reportedly placed a joint bid for a $100 million virtual reality device contract issued by the U.S. Army. The deal is part of a broader technology procurement program, SBMC Next, that could be worth up to $22 billion. Anduril replaced Microsoft as the lead supplier for the program earlier this year.

Meta is working on a high-tech helmet for the U.S. military

Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg became a billionaire by connecting people with their friends to share photos and memories. Now he wants to also connect U.S. soldiers on the battlefield to help them defeat their enemies. The company announced on Thursday that it will work with defense technology start-up Anduril to offer the U.S. military and its allies technology for soldiers involving augmented reality and artificial intelligence software. The venture sees a worldwide consumer brand integrated into the lives of billions of users around the globe expand into a line of business that requires picking sides. The partners aim to "transform how warfighters see, sense, and integrate battlefield information," Anduril said. The companies are already working on a high-tech helmet as part of a project called EagleEye, Anduril founder Palmer Luckey told the tech podcast "Core Memory." Meta's new business initiative also reunites Zuckerberg with Luckey, the founder of the virtual reality company Oculus. In 2017, he left a high-profile position at the company then called Facebook, after public outcry over his $10,000 donation to an anti-Hillary Clinton organization. Luckey built the foundations of Meta's work on virtual reality following the company's acquisition of Oculus for $2 billion in 2014. After leaving the company, he co-founded Anduril, one of the most prominent companies among a wave of venture-backed start-ups that has emerged as the importance of technology such as drones and AI becomes apparent on the battlefields of Ukraine. "I am glad to be working with Meta once again," Luckey said in a statement. "My mission has long been to turn warfighters into technomancers, and the products we are building with Meta do just that." Zuckerberg said in his own statement that Meta was "proud to partner with Anduril to help bring these technologies to the American servicemembers that protect our interests at home and abroad." Meta's push to serve the military arrives as the company and its founder have attempted to rebrand themselves for President Donald Trump's second term. Since Trump's reelection, Zuckerberg has sought to strengthen his relationship with the president with flattering public comments, private meetings and a $1 million donation by Meta to the president's inauguration committee. Meta has also made Republican-friendly policy changes including scrapping its fact-checking program, overhauling its content moderation strategy to be more permissive, and ending diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. While Zuckerberg has remade Meta, his relationship with Luckey has also evolved. The VR entrepreneur left Facebook during Trump's first term as president, a time when many tech industry workers and their bosses were openly wary or even dismissive of Trump. News reports about Luckey's donation to a group that ran anti-Hillary Clinton ads sparked backlash among Facebook employees and the wider community of virtual reality developers. He departed soon after, though neither Luckey nor the company explained why. Andrew Bosworth, the former leader of Meta's virtual reality efforts, said at the time that politics had nothing to do with Luckey's departure. But Luckey told people he was fired over his political beliefs and support for Trump, the Wall Street Journal has reported. In September, before Trump's election victory, Luckey returned to Meta on a visit to try out the company's latest augmented-reality-powered glasses, called Orion. Afterward, Bosworth, now Meta's chief technology officer, publicly apologized to Luckey for his previous comments, saying in a post on X: "I'm grateful for the impact you made at the company and in developing VR overall. Looking forward to showing you more of our work in the future." Luckey said in an episode of the "Core Memory" podcast released Thursday that Zuckerberg didn't fire him directly and that many of the people who made the decision have left the company. "When every single person that conspired to get rid of me has been run out of the company, what is there really left to be truly angry at?" he said. Among the first projects the two companies plan to tackle is the EagleEye helmet for soldiers. Luckey described it as combining an AI assistant with communications and other functions. It will be an "ever-present companion who can operate systems, who can communicate with others, who you can off-load tasks onto ... that is looking out for you with more eyes than you could ever look out for yourself, right there, right there in your helmet," Luckey said. Anduril and Meta said they have submitted a joint white paper for an Army contract for augmented reality devices that give U.S. soldiers "increased lethality, mobility, and situational awareness," according to a Defense Department listing for the project. The EagleEye system will improve soldiers' hearing and vision by helping them detect drones flying miles away or hidden targets, the Journal reported. The project will rely on Anduril's autonomy software and Meta's AI models. Luckey said that effort will build on Anduril's work on the Army's Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) program, in which it has partnered with Microsoft to develop an augmented-reality-powered headset for soldiers. To aid the collaboration, Meta will draw on its hefty investments in AI models known as Llama and its virtual reality division, Reality Labs. The company has built several iterations of immersive headsets aimed at blending the physical and virtual worlds - a concept known as the metaverse. Meta's new venture comes after a shift in recent years that has seen Silicon Valley companies once hesitant to work with the military get comfortable with the Pentagon. In November, Meta said it would allow U.S. government agencies and contractors working on national security applications to use its AI models. In 2018, Google declined to renew a deal to sell AI technology to the Pentagon after an employee revolt, but it now speaks proudly of military contracts and recently dropped a pledge not to apply AI to surveillance or weaponry.

Anduril teams with Meta to create world's best XR systems for the United States military

Oculus creator returns to his old VR stomping grounds: Anduril partners with Meta to create the world's best XR headsets for US military use. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. TweakTown may also earn commissions from other affiliate partners at no extra cost to you. After being unceremoniously turfed from Facebook in 2017 after being "outed" as a supporter of President Trump, Oculus VR creator Palmer Luckey has returned to Meta in a different way: partnering with the company to make the best XR headsets for the US military. The big new deal was funded through private capital, without the use of any US taxpayer funds, and has been designed to save the US military billions of dollars by using high-performance components and technology that were originally created for commercial use. Anduril explained on its website: "This partnership comes at a pivotal moment in the evolution of national defense. America's national security has benefited from U.S. technological leadership at every phase of the computing revolution, from the first microchips and PCs to today's internet and mobile devices. As a new era of computing takes shape-built atop AI and body-worn devices-Meta and Anduril are committed to maintaining America's technological edge while reinforcing our economic and national security". Anduril founder Palmer Luckey posted on his X account saying: "We have been working together on a variety of things for a while now, but the first one to go public will be EagleEye, the system I hope will go on to become the next Soldier Borne Mission Command for the Army". He added: "It is pretty cool to have everything at our fingertips for this joint effort - everything I made before Meta acquired Oculus, everything we made together, and everything we did on our own after I was fired. It's time to finish the fight". Anduril and Meta's new partnership will see the two companies designing, building, and fielding a range of integrated XR (AR + VR) products that provide warfighters with "enhanced perception" and enabling control of autonomous platforms on the battlefield. The companies have over 10+ years of experience between them in advanced hardware, software, and AI. Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO of Meta, said: "Meta has spent the last decade building AI and AR to enable the computing platform of the future. We're proud to partner with Anduril to help bring these technologies to the American servicemembers that protect our interests at home and abroad". Palmer Luckey, Founder of Anduril, said: "I am glad to be working with Meta once again. Of all the areas where dual-use technology can make a difference for America, this is the one I am most excited about. My mission has long been to turn warfighters into technomancers, and the products we are building with Meta do just that".

Meta to make AI-powered military products under new partnership

Meta is partnering with defense contractor Anduril Industries to develop new products for the U.S. military, including an artificial intelligence-powered helmet with virtual and augmented reality features. Anduril is working with Meta "to design, build, and field a range of integrated XR products that provide warfighters with enhanced perception and enable intuitive control of autonomous platforms on the battlefield," according to a company blog post published Thursday. Palmer Luckey, the co-founder of Anduril, also co-founded Oculus VR, the gaming headset company he sold to Meta in 2014. At least one of those products will be a "sci-fi-style military helmet" named "Eagle Eye," according to Core Memory, an independent publication run by journalist Ashlee Vance. "It's the thing that everyone's always wanted," Luckey told Vance in an interview. "People have called them different things: They've called them Call of Duty goggles. They've called it, you know, the helmet from Halo." "These are old ideas that have only recently become really technologically viable." In November, Meta changed its "acceptable use" policies so that its large language AI models could be used by U.S. military contractors, including Lockheed Martin, Booz Allen Hamilton and Palantir Technologies. A spokesperson for Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The partnership involves a surprising reunion between Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Luckey, who has said he was ousted from Meta after controversy around financing a group creating anti-Hillary Clinton memes ahead of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Zuckerberg's politics in recent years have trended rightward.

Meta joins Anduril to build XR products for US armed forces

Meta and Anduril Industries are collaborating to deliver integrated extended reality (XR) products for the US military, funded privately. This partnership integrates Meta's AR/VR capabilities with Anduril's Lattice platform, an AI-powered command and control system, enhancing tactical decisionmaking. They've sent a joint proposed to Soldier Borne Mission Command (SBMC) Next, aiming to develop digital awareness system for soldiers.Mark Zuckerberg's Meta has collaborated with Palmer Luckey-owned defence tech company Anduril Industries to roll out a range of integrated extended reality (XR) products for the US military. The project has been funded through private capital without taxpayer support, Anduril said in a statement Thursday. It will utilise high-performance components and technology originally built for commercial use to save costs for the armed forces, it added. "Meta has spent the last decade building artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) to enable the computing platform of the future. We're proud to partner with Anduril to help bring these technologies to the American servicemembers that protect our interests at home and abroad," said Mark Zuckerberg, founder and chief executive of Meta. Meta will integrate its augmented and virtual reality capabilities with Anduril's Lattice platform, an artificial intelligence-powered command and control system. It gathers data from many sources to give real-time information on the battlefield. By using AR/VR interfaces, soldiers will have easy access to Lattice's data, to help them see, sense, and integrate battlefield information, providing immersive technology solutions that enhance tactical decision-making in combat scenarios, Anduril said. This partnership allows Meta to expand its support for the US government's use of its technology. It builds on Meta's Reality Labs investments and its Llama open source AI models for national security. Anduril and Meta have already submitted a joint proposal for Soldier Borne Mission Command (SBMC) Next, which is an initiative to develop a digital awareness for US soldiers.

Mark Zuckerberg finally found a use for his Metaverse -- War

Meta is crossing a former hard red line in Silicon Valley to develop tech for military uses. Anduril, founded by Palmer Luckey, is partnering with Meta to develop XR products for military use, offering a potential lifeline for Meta's Reality Labs, which has faced significant financial losses. The deal also highlights a reversal in technological innovation, with consumer tech now finding applications on the battlefield.I can't think of any other deal that more encapsulates how Silicon Valley has changed in the past couple of years than this one, announced Thursday in a press release: Anduril and Meta are partnering to design, build, and field a range of integrated XR products that provide warfighters with enhanced perception and enable intuitive control of autonomous platforms on the battlefield. For starters, Anduril Industries Inc. is a defense tech company co-founded by Palmer Luckey, the man who created the Oculus VR headset that was acquired by Meta Platforms Inc. for $2 billion in 2014, only for Luckey to be pushed out when it emerged he had financially backed a pro-Trump campaign group. That he would be welcomed back with open arms is yet another sign that such stances are no longer taboo in the halls of Silicon Valley companies. (It could be argued they never should have been.) Second, developing technology for war had been considered a hard red line for many of the engineers working within those leafy campuses, at least in the era after the dot-com boom. At Google, for instance, workers in 2018 held walkouts and forced executives to abandon projects related to military use. Today, defense applications of technology are something companies want to shout from their rooftops, not bury in the basement. (Again, it could be argued that should have always been the case. Who will create tech for the US military if not US tech companies?) In Meta's case, there's another factor at play. Mark Zuckerberg's deal with Anduril -- which you assume is just the start of Meta's military hardware ambitions -- offers a lifeline to its ailing Reality Labs business. The unit has lost more than $70 billion since the start of 2019. Advancements in quality haven't led to jumps in sales. I've written before that fitness applications are a great selling point, but apparently too few people agree with me. A newer form factor, sunglasses made in partnership with Ray-Ban, have shown potential but still represent a niche product. So instead, maybe the "killer app" for mixed reality is indeed a killer app. "My mission has long been to turn warfighters into technomancers," Luckey is quoted as saying in a press release. "And the products we are building with Meta do just that." A prototype of the "Eagle Eye" helmet being developed by the companies is due to be delivered to the Pentagon this year, Luckey told journalist Ashlee Vance in a podcast published alongside the official announcement. He compared its utility to what a player wears in the video game Halo -- a heads-up display offering reams of intricate information on targets and locations, plus an AI assistant, Cortana, relaying critical and lifesaving directions. What's also striking about this shift is that it is a sign the historical flow of technological innovation is being turned around. Silicon Valley began as a region set up to develop chips for military tech before the assembled talent branched out into making products for businesses and consumers, such as the personal computer. Many breakthroughs have followed this direction of travel -- the internet, the microwave, GPS, super glue, to name a few -- but it is now increasingly the other way around. As Luckey put it during the podcast discussing the deal, it turns out that Meta's headsets are "just as useful on the battlefield as they are on the head of any consumer." See also: artificial intelligence, developed first (and perhaps, at the cutting edge, always) by private sector tech companies. The opportunity is too big to pass up and too lucrative to hold grudges. Luckey says he was willing to work with Meta again because it had become a much different place from the one he was booted out of. Now friends again, he said he believed that Zuckerberg received bad advice when told to fire him and that his coming round to more Republican ways of thinking is genuine -- as evidenced by his willingness to make Meta's AI available for government use, too. I've little reason to question Luckey's judgment here, though I wonder if it might be time for Meta to revise its mission statement. "Build the future of human connection," it states today, not yet updated to reflect that it's now also working on the future of human conflict. This column reflects the personal views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Dave Lee is Bloomberg Opinion's US technology columnist. He was previously a correspondent for the Financial Times and BBC News.

Mark Zuckerberg's Meta Reunites With Palmer Luckey To Equip US Soldiers With EagleEye -- An AI-Powered Combat Headset That Can Detect Drones - Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

Years after a controversial split, Mark Zuckerberg's Meta Platforms, Inc. META and Palmer Luckey are teaming up again -- this time to equip U.S. soldiers with next-gen combat headsets. What Happened: On Thursday, Meta and Luckey-led defense tech startup Anduril Industries announced a partnership to develop rugged VR/AR headsets for the U.S. Army. The new system, called EagleEye, is designed to enhance soldiers' senses using AI, allowing for advanced capabilities like drone detection and target identification, reported the Wall Street Journal. The devices will combine Anduril's autonomous software with Meta's AI models. "I finally got all my toys back," said Luckey, referring to the partnership giving him access to VR designs he helped pioneer before being fired by Facebook, now Meta, in 2017. See Also: Mark Zuckerberg Once Said 'The Social Network' Made Up Stuff That Was Kind Of Hurtful Because Real Life Wasn't Glamorous Enough For Hollywood Meta and Anduril have jointly submitted a bid for an Army contract worth up to $100 million, the report said. The deal would mark Meta's most significant collaboration with the Pentagon and is part of a larger $22 billion Army initiative to modernize military wearables. Notably, the companies say development is continuing regardless of whether they win the bid. "This is way too important of a capability for the United States military to let the last vestiges of a decade-old pissing contest get in the way," said Luckey. In a statement, Zuckerberg said the EagleEye technology would support U.S. soldiers in protecting "our interests" both domestically and internationally. Subscribe to the Benzinga Tech Trends newsletter to get all the latest tech developments delivered to your inbox. Why It's Important: In 2014, Facebook acquired Luckey's virtual reality startup Oculus for $2.2 billion. However, just two years later, the relationship fractured when Luckey faced backlash over a political donation, ultimately leading to his departure in 2017. Last year, Luckey visited Meta's headquarters to test its Orion AR glasses. Following the visit, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth issued a public apology for past comments, which Luckey accepted, noting Meta had undergone major leadership changes. Zuckerberg also praised Luckey, saying he respects his contributions to VR and success beyond Oculus. Luckey responded positively, signaling openness to working with Meta again. Luckey's Anduril was valued at $28 billion earlier this month, while Meta currently has a market cap of $1.6 trillion. Price Action: Meta shares slipped 0.70% in after-hours trading, closing at $640.52, per Benzinga Pro data. According to Benzinga Edge Stock Rankings, META maintained a strong price trend across short-, medium-, and long-term timeframes. The stock ranked 86.82% for momentum, while its value score stood at 35.17%. More details are available here. Photo Courtesy: Tada Images on Shutterstock.com Check out more of Benzinga's Consumer Tech coverage by following this link. Read Next: Pebble Founder Echoes Mark Zuckerberg's Concerns, Slams Apple For Making It 'Nearly Impossible' To Build Smartwatches That Work With iPhone Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. METAMeta Platforms Inc$640.52-0.48%Stock Score Locked: Want to See it? Benzinga Rankings give you vital metrics on any stock - anytime. Reveal Full ScoreEdge RankingsMomentum86.82Growth92.82Quality83.62Value35.17Price TrendShortMediumLongOverviewMarket News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs