Palmer Luckey returns to headsets as Anduril partners with Microsoft on US military tech

Palmer Luckey, the Hawaiian-shirt founder who sold Oculus VR for $2 billion and then co-founded military technology company Anduril, is making a comeback to the headset business, of sorts.

Anduril has partnered with Microsoft to build its software into the Integrated Visual Augmentation System headset that Microsoft will develop for the U.S. military in 2021.

According to Wired, the software will be built into headsets as a training tool, but it could also provide soldiers with data on drones, ground vehicles, or air defense systems that are beyond their line of sight.

“If you have an augmented reality display that can make you 20 percent more lethal or someone 10 percent safer, that’s a bigger improvement than any other piece of hardware you could give them,” Luckey says.

Anduril is riding a wave. In May, it announced it had won a U.S. military contract to build an autonomous fighter jet. Last month, it finalized new financing that values ​​it at a whopping $14 billion.