- Palmer Luckey, billionaire founder of Oculus and Anduril Industries, has had a rocky career.
- Luckey founded a defense company shortly after being ousted from Facebook in 2016.
Last week, the Jewish magazine Tablet published a 15,000-word profile on Oculus founder Palmer Luckey. We read through it all to see what stood out — and there was a lot.
The 31-year-old, worth $2.3 billion, according to Forbes, has been a controversial figure in the tech industry since his early 20s. He made major strides in the virtual reality space with his headset company before selling it to Meta, then Facebook, in 2014 for $2 billion in cash and stock.
Two years and billions of dollars later, Luckey was ousted dramatically after a report that he'd made donations to a pro-Donald Trump group. Meta has maintained that he wasn't fired for his political views.
During his conversation with Jeremy Stern, Tablet's deputy editor, self-proclaimed "radical Zionist" Luckey covered a wide range of topics, from his teenage years spent tinkering in a trailer to the wild projects he's pursued since leaving Oculus behind.
Here are 10 of the most interesting details from the lengthy profile based on the controversial life and career of Luckey.
He chose to launch a Kickstarter campaign over a VR job at Sony
In 2012, as the prototype of the VR headset he created gained attention in the gaming world, Sony offered Luckey $70,000 a year to work on it at its research and development office, Tablet reported.
At the time, Luckey said he was a broke 19-year-old living in his parents' garage.
Instead, he launched a campaign on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. The goal was $250,000, and Oculus raised over $2.4 million in 30 days.
Luckey isn't convinced that free will is real
Free will is a theme that pops up throughout the profile. Although Luckey doesn't outright say that free will doesn't exist, the subject is one he apparently ponders often.
His achievements, namely creating two separate companies worth billions, aren't easily attained, but Luckey said he's "quite concerned that I'm doing what I was programmed to do when I was 8 years old."
He cited TV shows like "Yu-Gi-Oh!" and "Power Rangers" as catalysts for his career in VR and autonomous weapons.
His defense company is inspired by Stark Industries
Luckey's love of pop culture is present in almost all of his endeavors. He told Tablet that his defense company Anduril Industries — named after a sword in "The Lord of the Rings" — began as an idea inspired by the fictional Stark Industries in Marvel's "Iron Man."
It's worth noting that Tony Stark, the billionaire playboy who runs Stark Industries, eventually puts on a suit and starts fighting the bad guys himself.
He's a "crusader for vengeance" over his Facebook firing — but willing to stay quiet for now
It's been almost 10 years since Luckey was fired from Facebook and forced to leave Oculus, the company he started as a teenager, but he doesn't sound ready to forgive and forget.
Instead, Luckey told Tablet that he's choosing to stay quiet about the ordeal to protect "what's best for VR."
"I am a crusader for vengeance. And if my vengeance can best be served by covering up the crimes of those who have wronged me, then I'll probably do that," Luckey said.
Despite the sour ending with Meta, Luckey misses VR
He may be working in defense now, but Luckey told Tablet that he "would rather be making virtual reality headsets."
The billionaire described a daily life that, perhaps, would look different if he hadn't been heavily criticized by his peers in the tech industry and ousted from Facebook. Luckey said he would "rather be making video games and toys, fast cars, spaceships" than weapons.
He had some wild ideas for companies after his Facebook firing
After his time at Facebook, Luckey tried out a few ideas for his next big venture, Tablet reported. One idea was a nonprofit private prison chain that would only earn money if its prisoners could remain free after they were released.
Eventually, Luckey gave up on it and decided to tackle another issue in the US: obesity. His solution was to create low-calorie food made from petroleum products derived from sewage, according to Tablet.
That one didn't stick, either.
Mark Zuckerberg made his first statement about Luckey in years
"I have a huge amount of respect for Palmer — both for what he's done for VR and for now achieving the rare feat of building multiple successful companies," Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, according to Tablet.
He continued, "He's an impressive free-thinker and fun to work with. I was sad when his time at Meta came to an end, but the silver lining is that his work at Anduril is going to be extremely important for our national security. I'm glad an entrepreneur of his caliber is working on these problems. I hope we can find ways to work together in the future."
Luckey takes Trump's new support from Silicon Valley's billionaires personal
Big players in Silicon Valley, like Elon Musk and Marc Andreessen, have come out to publicly support Trump as a presidential candidate during this election year.
But Luckey was one of the very few tech executives championing Trump during his first presidential campaign.
"On the one hand I'm happy, but honestly it kind of pisses me off," Luckey told Tablet.
He added, "I can't help but take it personally and just look back and say, man, you guys are really a piece of work to be so mean to me about it and then all of a sudden, you all come to the conclusion I came to ... how long has it been? Eight years?"
He has some controversial parenting ideas
At one point in the profile, Luckey tapped his wife, Nicole, to summarize his "controversial parenting things." The couple welcomed their first child together in July, Tablet reported.
"One, no school or college. Two, separate apartment in childhood. Three, move out at 16. Four, learn to drive all machines as early as possible. Five, leave the family fortune to one child. Six, children have to fly in economy while we are in business," Nicole wrote about her husband.
Luckey is still working on some wild inventions
His idea for a VR headset that would kill a player in real life if they die in the game went viral in 2022. For now, it's a piece of decor, but Luckey previously said it won't be the last invention of its kind.
He told Tablet that he's also working on skull implants that could allow people to speak directly into his brain using a special phone.