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.”
