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

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."

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