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Bold Names

Palmer Luckey's 'I Told You So' Tour: AI Weapons and Vindication

Bold Names

The Wall Street Journal

Technology

4.41.4K Ratings

🗓️ 7 March 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Palmer Luckey, the founder of weapons manufacturer Anduril, was part of a minority in the tech sector that supported President Trump during his first run at the White House. Now, Luckey wields influence in both Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C.–and he’s using it to secure U.S. military contracts while trying to remake the government’s approach to national security. Luckey speaks to WSJ’s Christopher Mims and Tim Higgins in the latest episode of our interview series Bold Names. Check Out Past Episodes: Humanoid Robot Startups Are Hot. This AI Expert Cuts Through the Hype.  Reid Hoffman Says AI Isn’t an ‘Arms Race,’ but America Needs to Win  Why Bilt’s CEO Wants You To Pay Your Mortgage With a Credit Card  The CEO Who Says Cheaper AI Could Actually Mean More Jobs  Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at [email protected] Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:23.4

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0:26.6

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0:31.3

Out of the Silicon Valley Tech leaders now supporting President Trump, one, you may not have

0:36.2

heard of as Palmer Lucky, an eccentric entrepreneur

0:38.9

who made his billions by selling his virtual reality company Oculus VR to Facebook, now Meta.

0:45.7

Oculus laid the foundations of the tech behind Meta's popular quest headsets, but it's Lucky's

0:51.4

current venture in the world of weapons that gives him influence in the U.S. defense industry.

0:57.0

Lucky isn't your typical defense contractor.

1:00.3

He's got a mullet and a goate.

1:02.0

He sports Hawaiian shirts and set of business suits.

1:04.8

And while his company, Andrel, is named after a sword in the Lord of the Rings,

1:09.4

its business designing and manufacturing high-tech

1:12.4

weapons, is deadly serious. Drones, artificial intelligence, cutting-edge operating systems,

1:18.7

the stuff of sci-fi armories coming to life. The United States should not be the world police.

1:23.7

We should be the world gun store. We need to stop sending our people overseas to die for other people's sovereignty.

1:29.7

And we need to be willing to sell them the weapons they need to make themselves into prickly porcupines that nobody wants to step on.

1:35.5

Nobody wants to bite.

1:36.8

Nobody wants to take a bite of them.

1:39.4

Anderil's latest deal is taking over a massive contract Microsoft had with the Army to create what's called

1:45.0

the Integrated Visual Augmentation System, or IVAS. It's a virtual reality headset designed

1:50.9

for the battlefield that could give soldiers direct information from sensors and control of unmanned

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