Palmer Luckey on Hardware, Building, and the Next Frontiers of Innovation
Recorded live at our Founders Summit, a16z general partner Chris Dixon speaks with Palmer Luckey, founder of Anduril and Oculus VR. They talk about what it takes to build hardware at scale, where the biggest technological bottlenecks are today, and why optimism is still warranted despite geopolitical turmoil and regulatory constraints. They also cover crypto, stablecoins, modern warfare, the U.S.–China technology race, AI and manufacturing, and frontiers like fusion and quantum computing—plus lessons from Oculus, the founding of Anduril, and how to build mission-driven teams.
Resources:
Follow Palmer Luckey on X: https://twitter.com/PalmerLuckey
Follow Chris Dixon on X: https://twitter.com/cdixon
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Palmer Luckey - Inventing the Future of Defense - [Invest Like the Best, CLASSICS]
Welcome to this classic episode. Classics are my favorite episodes from the past 10 years, published once a month. These are N of 1 conversations with N of 1 people. Palmer Luckey is a relentless builder and original thinker. He founded Oculus, bringing virtual reality to the mainstream, and is now reshaping the future of defense and technology with Anduril. I hope you enjoy this conversation.
Palmer is the founder of Anduril, which makes next-generation military technology for the US and its allies. Since bringing the company to life in 2017, Palmer and Anduril have disrupted the established order in the Defense industry. Prior to Anduril, Palmer founded Oculus VR, a virtual reality business that he sold to Facebook for $2 billion.
Palmer is only in his early 30s, but he has already experienced more than most people will in a 40-year career. We talk about innovation, invention, differentiated thinking, and so much more. Please enjoy this great discussion with Palmer Luckey.
Listen to Patrick's Business Breakdowns with Anduril CEO.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
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Show Notes
(00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best
(00:01:15) Meet Palmer Luckey
(00:02:03) The importance of synthetic long-chain hydrocarbon fuel
(00:08:12) Ranking America's potential for innovation
(00:11:18) Why there aren't more Thiel Fellowships
(00:13:31) The principles that motivate and drive him
(00:16:56) What it has been like working in the world of defense after the attack on Israel
(00:19:09) Surprising lessons learned when building a large company
(00:22:37) How to approach a new field initially
(00:27:20) Meeting other out-of-the-box thinkers
(00:31:46) Inventors working backward from existing systems versus forward from their ideals
(00:33:26) The most pressing issue in national security
(00:39:36) What matters most for America from a defense perspective
(00:42:33) How to determine which problems to prioritize
(00:48:59) Lessons learned from working with AI
(00:55:56) How Apple is shaping the future of VR
(01:00:11) Which videogame a prospective employee should excel at
(01:02:41) Why Oculus was so successful in marketing
(01:09:48) The kindest thing
Why Silicon Valley Turned Against Defense (And How We’re Fixing It)
Palmer Luckey got fired from Meta for backing the wrong candidate—now he's the hero saving American defense, and that shift tells you everything about how fast the ground moved beneath Silicon Valley's feet. For decades, tech and defense were allies, then came 15 years of hostility so visceral that Google employees revolted over a Pentagon AI contract, and when leadership caved, only three people showed up to hear what border security actually involves. But something broke: COVID exposed our inability to make things, Ukraine revealed wars now iterate in days not decades, and suddenly the Harvard dorm room generation realized the people building satellites and drones weren't just necessary—they were the future, while legacy defense contractors still operate on Soviet-style five-year plans that guarantee cost overruns and obsolescence. Now the question isn't whether Silicon Valley returns to its Cold War roots, but whether America wins by becoming more like China's centralized system or doubles down on the chaotic creativity that built nine of the world's ten most valuable companies in 25 years—and the founders flooding into defense, energy, mining, and manufacturing suggest the second American century is just getting started.
Resources:
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Follow Katherine on X: https://x.com/KTmBoyle
Follow David on X: https://x.com/davidu
Follow Erik on X: https://x.com/eriktorenberg
Stay Updated:
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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The AI arsenal that could stop World War III | Palmer Luckey
AI in warfare is no longer hypothetical; it's inevitable, says Palmer Luckey, an inventor and founder of the defense technology company Anduril Industries. He takes us inside the high-tech arms race to build AI-powered weapons, "killer robots" and autonomous fighter jets at scale — and makes the counterintuitive case for why this may be the surest path to deterrence and lasting peace. (Followed by Q&A with technologist Bilawal Sidhu)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Palmer Luckey - Inventing the Future of Defense - [Invest Like the Best, EP.350]
My guest today is Palmer Luckey. Palmer is the founder of Defense company Anduril Industries, which makes next-generation military technology for the US and its allies. Since bringing the company to life in 2017, Palmer and Anduril have disrupted the established order in the Defense industry. Prior to Anduril, Palmer founded Oculus VR, a virtual reality business that he sold to Facebook for $2 billion.
Palmer is only in his early 30s, but he has already experienced more than most people will in a 40-year career. We talk about innovation, invention, differentiated thinking, and so much more. Please enjoy this great discussion with Palmer Luckey.
Listen to Patrick's Business Breakdown with Anduril CEO.
Listen to Founders Podcast
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes:
(00:03:28) - The importance of synthetic long-chain hydrocarbon fuel
(00:09:37) - Ranking America's potential for innovation
(00:12:43) - Why there aren't more Thiel Fellowships
(00:14:56) - The principles that motivate and drive him
(00:18:21) - What it has been like working in the world of defense after the attack on Israel
(00:20:34) - Surprising lessons learned when building a large company
(00:24:02) - How to approach a new field initially
(00:28:45) - Meeting other out-of-the-box thinkers
(00:33:11) - Inventors working backward from existing systems versus forward from their ideals
(00:34:51) - The most pressing issue in national security
(00:41:01) - What matters most for America from a defense perspective
(00:43:58) - How to determine which problems to prioritize
(00:50:24) - Lessons learned from working with AI
(00:57:21) - How Apple is shaping the future of VR
(01:01:36) - Which videogame a prospective employee should excel at
(01:04:06) - Why Oculus was so successful in marketing
(01:11:13) - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for Palmer
Palmer Luckey (Founder, Oculus and Anduril): How He Got Fired For Making a $9,000 Donation in Support of Trump
Palmer Luckey is the founder of Oculus (VR headset maker that sold to Facebook for $2.3B) and Anduril (an autonomous military technology company valued at $8.5B).
In the episode, Palmer uncovers the real story of why he was famously fired from Facebook in 2017. He also shares his thoughts about the virtual reality industry and discusses why building these autonomous military defense systems leads to more ethical wars.
This discussion originally happened in September 2022. Thanks to all of the engaging details, we’ve decided to reshare it!
(0:00) Intro
(1:43) Welcome Palmer Luckey
(2:19) Being misrepresented by the media
(7:39) Choosing advancement of the VR industry over personal views
(11:24) Palmer’s donation to a pro-Trump group and the fallout
(16:42) Game studios “not” working with Oculus
(23:17) What the Facebook PR team got wrong
(31:27) Palmer's biggest takeaways from the firing
(38:14) Palmer’s background and founding Oculus
(41:09) Why you should follow your talents over your passions
(48:31) Selling Oculus
(53:15) Founding Anduril after being fired from Facebook
(1:06:51) What does Anduril do?
(1:12:38) Knowing a little about a lot
(1:14:05) Autonomous military systems
(1:16:16) How AI can improve war ethics
Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky
Produced: Rashad Assir
Executive Producer: Josh Machiz
Music: Griff Lawson
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About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode, Logan goes behind the scenes with world-class entrepreneurs and investors. If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Friday for new episodes.
Executive Producer: Rashad Assir
Producer: Leah Clapper
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Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA
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About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, we sit down with the people behind today’s most important startups and extract the tactics, lessons, and frameworks they’ve learned the hard way. Conversations span hiring to GTM, product, growth, fundraising and everything in between - collectively forming the ultimate playbook to make you a better CEO, investor or board member.
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Palmer Luckey's Ambitions For The Metaverse And AI Warfare — With Palmer Luckey
Palmer Luckey is the founder of Oculus VR and the founder of Anduril, a military technology company. Luckey joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss Meta’s Metaverse ambitions, whether they’re misguided, and how Apple is poised to compete. Stay tuned for the second half, where we discuss the prospects — and advisability — of AI warfare, how the technology might spill over to police departments, and what a just war is. We discuss the prospects of sentient AI's threat to humanity at the very end.
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Rebooting the Arsenal of Democracy with Palmer Luckey
Starting in the 1960s, technology companies, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, were essential for creating the processors that would eventually launch satellites and guide missiles. Half a century later, today’s tech companies can — and need — to move even faster and smarter, as international adversaries scale up their aggressions. In this episode, Anduril Industries Founder Palmer Luckey will discuss how Silicon Valley is using new technologies to build new tools, systems, and companies to defend our nation and its interests.
Resources:
American Dynamism Summit: https://a16z.com/AD-summit/
Anduril’s website: https://www.anduril.com/
Find Palmer on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PalmerLuckey
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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Oculus & Anduril Founder Palmer Luckey: From Flipping iPhones On Ebay To Selling For $2Bn To Facebook
Episode 378: Sam Parr (@TheSamParr) and Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) talk with billionaire Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey), founder of Oculus and Anduril, about what he's done with his money since selling Oculus to Facebook, his ideas for a new prison system and sewer food, as well as his take on national security and why he flies coach.
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Links:
* The Blog of Palmer Luckey
* Anduril
* Do you love MFM and want to see Sam and Shaan's smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel.
* Want more insights like MFM? Check out Shaan's newsletter.
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Show Notes:
(07:05) - How much did you make from the Oculus sale?
(13:55) - Palmer's journey from minimum wage to millionaire
(18:55) - What did you do with your money when you sold Occulus?
(26:30) - Palmer's crypto investment
(29:15) - What are the online forums that people should be hanging out in?
(37:45) - What ideas were you pursuing after you sold Oculus (prisons, food)?
(54:40) - What does Anduril do?
(01:15:15) - Jason Calacanis vs. Palmer
(01:23:25) - Flying coach
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Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more.
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Additional episodes you might enjoy:
• #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits
• #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future
• #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto
* #169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett
• #218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates
• Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More
• How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More
EP 34: Interview w/ Oculus & Anduril Founder Palmer Luckey + Jon Sakoda Predicts Record VC Investments
In the 34th episode, Palmer Luckey discusses founding Oculus VR, the controversy that got him fired from Facebook, and having to fight lies in the media. Plus his current success with Anduril and what the job of a CEO really entails. Decibel’s Jon Sakoda also makes an appearance to talk about his prediction of record VC investments and the revival of startup funding in the coming years.
(0:00) Intro
(1:02) Welcome Jon Sakoda
(6:13) Jon’s charts
(14:49) Internet Bubble
(20:34) Public vs private market valuations
(32:58) Other takeaways and predictions
(35:45) Welcome Palmer Luckey
(36:21) Journalism school
(39:10) The Oculus story
(41:41) Choosing VR over personal issues
(45:26) Donating to pro-Trump group
(50:44) Game studios “not” working with Oculus
(57:19) Facebook leadership’s intent
(1:05:29) The takeaway from Facebook controversy
(1:12:16) Founding Oculus
(1:15:11) Following talents vs passion
(1:22:33) Selling Oculus
(1:27:17) Founding Anduril
(1:40:54) What Anduril does
(1:46:40) Knowing a little about a lot
(1:50:18) Morality in war
(1:53:42) Building technology before war occurs
(1:57:15) Going to Ukraine
(2:00:51) Being a CEO
(2:05:21) An executive’s actual job
(2:07:51) Wrap up
Show Notes:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/opening-floodgates-290-billion-venture-capital-reserve-jon-sakoda/
https://twitter.com/jonsakoda/status/1572269690810159105?s=21&t=FLkGcKd2el-h38sX9AMsaw
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Hyn4FWHSNRrWJeddi0BMEQIMlmXy2SNj50T8jJcrKbw/edit#slide=id.g1273c4d3e67_15_0
Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky
Produced: Andrew Nadeau and Rashad Assir
Executive Producer: Josh Machiz
Music: Griff Lawson
🎙 Listen to the show
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
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About the Show
A Saturday morning podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett (Partner and Managing Director at Redpoint Ventures) covering the tech news with his friends and other people with industry expertise.
Executive Producer: Rashad Assir
Producer: Leah Clapper
Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky
Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA
🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1
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🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow
About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, we sit down with the people behind today’s most important startups and extract the tactics, lessons, and frameworks they’ve learned the hard way. Conversations span hiring to GTM, product, growth, fundraising and everything in between - collectively forming the ultimate playbook to make you a better CEO, investor or board member.
Tap follow and enable notifications to stay ahead of the game.
#AIS: Palmer Luckey on Anduril
This talk was recorded LIVE at the All-In Summit in Miami and included slides. To watch on YouTube, check out our All-In Summit playlist: https://bit.ly/aisytplaylist
0:00 Jason intros today's episode
2:31 Palmer Luckey on Anduril, national defense & the current thing
25:24 Bestie Q&A with Palmer
53:13 Jason gives closing thoughts
Follow Palmer:
https://twitter.com/PalmerLuckey
Follow the besties:
https://twitter.com/chamath
https://linktr.ee/calacanis
https://twitter.com/DavidSacks
https://twitter.com/friedberg
Follow the pod:
https://twitter.com/theallinpod
https://linktr.ee/allinpodcast
Intro Music Credit:
https://rb.gy/tppkzl
https://twitter.com/yung_spielburg
Intro Video Credit:
https://twitter.com/TheZachEffect
Links referenced in the show:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/palmer-luckey-the-facebook-near-billionaire-secretly-funding-trumps-meme-machine
20VC: Anduril Founder, Palmer Luckey: "I Am Here To Build a $50Bn Company", How Palmer Evaluates His Relationship To Money Pre & Post Oculus' $2.3Bn Exit & Why The US DOD Needs To Be More Like China in It's Approach
Palmer Luckey is the Founder @ Anduril Industries, founded on the premise of radically transforming the defence capabilities of the United States and its allies by fusing artificial intelligence with the latest hardware advancements. To date, Palmer has raised over $385M with Anduril from Founders Fund, a16z, Elad Gil, Spark Capital, Lux Capital, General Catalyst and 8VC to name a few. Prior to changing the world of defence, Palmer founded Oculus VR where he designed the Oculus Rift. Oculus VR was acquired by Facebook for $2.3Bn in 2014.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Palmer made his way into the world of startups, made his way from trailer to selling Oculus for $2.3Bn to changing the defence industry with Anduril today?
2.) How does Palmer evaluate his own relationship to money? How has that changed since his $2.3Bn Oculus exit? How does Palmer assess his relationship to risk? How does Palmer approach the correlations between money, risk and happiness?
3.) What were some of Palmer's biggest takeaways from his time scaling Oculus? How have they informed his mindset with Anduril? What worked? What did not work? How has Palmer changed as a leader? How does Palmer approach personal development? How does he optimise for it?
4.) Palmer scaled Oculus to 1,400 people in 1 year, where do organisations break with scale? Why does Palmer believe, "you never want to play yourself"? Where does he feel his biggest weakness is as a scaling leader? How does Palmer approach hiring at scale yet maintaining culture?
5.) From a defence standpoint, why does Palmer feel the US needs to be more like the Chinese? Why is the DoD so poor at investing in innovation? What does it take to sell into the DoD really effectively? Why have the only 2 successful defence companies been founded by billionaires?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Palmer's Fave Book: The Three-Body Problem
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Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.