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American soldiers on the battlefield will soon be receiving a boost from Facebook. Meta (META), Facebook’s parent company, has entered into a partnership with defense technology company Anduril to design, build, and field a range of integrated extended reality (XR) products that provide soldiers with enhanced perception and enable intuitive control of autonomous platforms on the battlefield.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg described the partnership being a natural evolution for the company.
“Meta has spent the last decade building AI and AR to enable the computing platform of the future,” Zuckerberg said in a statement. “We’re proud to partner with Anduril to help bring these technologies to the American servicemembers that protect our interests at home and abroad.”
Anduril CEO Palmer Luckey lauded the partnership as a needed technological boost to the military.
“Of all the areas where dual-use technology can make a difference for America, this is the one I am most excited about,” Luckey said. My mission has long been to turn warfighters into technomancers, and the products we are building with Meta do just that.”
Zuckerberg’s move into military technology comes as he has attempted to court President Donald Trump, including rolling back DEI initiatives and donating $1 million to Trump’s inauguration. Trump ally Dana White also joined Meta’s board earlier this year. The UFC (EDR) boss is a friend of Zuckerberg, who has taken up martial arts as a hobby.
Meta’s development of military technology would appear to be fulfilling one of the company’s goals outlined last year when when Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said the company hopes to have “an active role in the debates that any administration needs to have about maintaining America’s leadership in the technological sphere.”
—Rocio Fabbro and Ben Kesslen contributed to this article.