Despite years of investment and billions of dollars spent, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Oculus founder Palmer Luckey were never able to turn virtual reality into a profitable mainstream consumer product. Now, the two are back in partnership—this time targeting a very different market: the U.S. Army.
According to a report from Bloomberg, Anduril Industries (founded by Luckey) and Meta Platforms (Zuckerberg’s company) are among three firms selected to develop prototypes for mixed-reality combat goggles. The third participant is Rivet Industries, led by a former head of mixed reality at Palantir, bringing together some of the most prominent players in defense-focused AR/VR technology.
The new effort builds on the Army’s Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) initiative, a multi-billion-dollar program originally launched in partnership with Microsoft. The project’s goal is to create advanced helmet-mounted mixed-reality systems designed to enhance soldier awareness, communication, and battlefield performance. Microsoft’s earlier prototypes, however, were criticized by Army testers as unreliable and even unsafe, with one soldier noting that the headsets “would have gotten us killed.” After Microsoft pulled back from its AR/VR ambitions, Anduril assumed responsibility for the project, now renamed Soldier Borne Mission Command (SBMC).
Anduril has stated that development of the new goggles will be guided by insights drawn from more than 260,000 hours of soldier feedback collected during the IVAS program. To date, the Army has invested approximately $1.36 billion into research, development, and prototypes—much of it yielding valuable lessons on what not to do.
For Zuckerberg and Luckey, the collaboration also marks a reconciliation following their public split in 2017. Earlier this year, the two pledged to develop “the world’s best AR and VR technology” for defense applications under a joint effort called Project EagleEye, expected to involve contracts worth around $100 million. While financial terms of the new award were not disclosed by Anduril, the company confirmed that Meta is part of the bid and will contribute to the goggles’ development. Rival firm Rivet Industries disclosed its own award at roughly $195 million, suggesting that the scale of investment in this next-generation system could be significant.
Ultimately, the renewed partnership signals not only a return of two of VR’s earliest pioneers but also a broader shift in the trajectory of immersive technology: moving away from consumer entertainment and toward national defense applications, where budgets are larger, timelines longer, and tolerance for experimental technology higher.