The Zuck and Luckey Reunion Enshrines Big Tech's Dude Bro-ification
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Palmer Luckey, the original founder of Oculus VR who has since become a military contractor, weren't on the best of terms for many years. After all, Zuck is the one who fired Luckey after he helped establish Meta's entire VR business. That's now water under the bridge. There's major money to be made in military tech, but Zuckerberg and Luckey—two nerds who made billions off their consumer products—are also bound tight by their newfound ultra-masculine, Trump-supporting personas.
On Thursday, the pair declared they were hitching themselves back together after their initial nasty divorce and subsequent lawsuit nearly a decade ago. Luckey's military contracting company, Anduril, and Meta announced they were going to make 'the world's best' AR and VR technology for the U.S. military. This initial project is dubbed 'EagleEye' and, according to The Wall Street Journal, will be some kind of 'rugged' VR system that could detect enemy soldiers or drones. The Oculus founder added that he and Zuck had been working on several projects 'for a while now.' That could include a joint bid for a U.S. Army contract worth approximately $100 million, according to the WSJ.
It's a real match made in murder. Microsoft had worked hard on a similar project called HoloLens that was supposed to provide soldiers with individual XR goggles. After years of development, initial tests back in 2022 went so poorly soldiers said the devices gave them motion sickness, adding, 'The devices would have gotten us killed.' Microsoft killed off its consumer-level HoloLens last year, but the company expected to do more tests of its XR devices this year. The Journal reported Aduril has replaced Microsoft as the leading vendor for military VR.
Big tech companies see dollar signs, and it's no wonder they're so eager to claim a slice of the military-industrial complex pie. Luckey has long been a supporter of President Donald Trump. His donations to a pro-Trump group and his public endorsement of the U.S.-Mexico border wall were deciding factors in his ouster from Facebook. Luckey all but confirmed it in a recent TED talk where he said he was fired from the company for 'donating $9,000 to the wrong political candidate.'
There is a lot of money to be made in military contracts. Elon Musk, whose company Starlink is a major U.S. contractor, isn't the only CEO who has buddied up close to Trump for the sake of access and new potential deals. Zuckerberg, alongside the CEOs of several major tech firms from Google to Amazon to Apple, donated millions of dollars for Trump's inauguration and stood behind the wannabe authoritarian while he was sworn in. All these companies have multi-billion ties to the Pentagon, though tech giants like Google and Amazon try to keep their ties out of the limelight.
So what's changed with Meta? The CEO of Andruil—a company name he ripped from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series—has long been an ardent Trump fan, but shortly after the election, Zuckerberg had his moment to finally come clean about his displeasure with all things having to do with diversity, equity, and inclusion—or DEI. The once-tweedy, nerdy Zuck has tried to transform his look as he's become a big fan of martial arts. He said on Joe Rogan's podcast that he believes the workplace needs more 'masculine energy,' which in the end just means he will kill funding for nonprofits and schools that he doesn't think fit in his new worldview.
The arms dealer's slicked-back mullet and soul patch framed by his typical Hawaiian shirts, cargo shorts, and sandals don't exactly gel with Zuckerberg's masculine makeover. The connection between the pair of wannabe warmongers is more than skin deep. Luckey has been outspoken of his love for the 'warriors' of the U.S. military. In past posts to X, Luckey identified himself as a 'warrior' since he helps provide the 'tools of violence.'
The bad blood between Luckey and Zuckerberg wouldn't survive the pair's transformation into their new 'warrior' identities. Yes, the contracts are lucrative enough to salve any lingering wounds, but the push into arms tech isn't driven merely by seeing dollar signs in the eyes. Both are committed to building a society that puts value on weapons and the armed forces above people. Perhaps they hope they'll both get a seat on the lead tank at Trump's fascist-flavored military parade next month.
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