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 will soon deploy its software in an Integrated Visual Augmentation System headset to be developed by Microsoft for the U.S. military in 2021.

According to Wired, the software will be embedded in head-mounted displays for training purposes. It could also provide soldiers with data on drones, ground vehicles, or air defense systems that are out of 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 won a U.S. military contract to build an autonomous fighter jet; last month, it closed on new financing at a valuation of $14 billion.