From Oculus to Anduril: Palmer Luckey on Power, Technology, and the Future

with @PalmerLuckey @cdixon

In this special episode — our 100th on the a16z crypto show! — Chris Dixon interviews Palmer Luckey (founder of Anduril; founder of Oculus VR and designer of the Oculus Rift) to talk about the future of technology, belief, and building.

What does it take to build hardware at scale? Where are many of today’s tech bottlenecks? And what's the case for optimism about the future despite growing geopolitical turmoil, regulatory constraints, and other blockers to innovation? The candid, wide-ranging conversation covers crypto, banking, and stablecoins, as well as modern warfare, the U.S.–China technology race, AI and manufacturing, and much more.

Dixon also digs into company building in good times and bad with Luckey; the conversation was recorded live at our Founders Summit.

Highlights: 0:00 — Introduction 2:08 — Early Oculus: Why VR was hard 8:02 — Bitcoin & early crypto days 9:49 — The Facebook acquisition 13:36 — How successful was VR, really? 18:59 — Starting Anduril 20:01 — Hiring for mission ("Don't Work at Anduril") 23:59 — How Anduril works (product dev, org design) 27:47 — How Palmer stays ahead of the curve 33:00 — The US-China technology race 34:40 — What Putin understood early about AI 39:45 — Stablecoins & banking risk 45:00 — Politics as bottleneck 47:00 — Future of technology: AI, fusion, quantum 50:23 — Automation, abundance, and optimism 53:23 — Ukraine, drones, and the reality of war

Follow a16z crypto for more...

• X: https://x.com/a16zcrypto • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/a16zcrypto/posts/ • Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7pMZvsNXEnb0CYcPiDQywE • Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/web3-with-a16z-crypto/id1622312549 • Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@a16zcrypto 📩 Subscribe for more industry reports, trend updates, news analysis, builder guides, and other resources: https://a16zcrypto.substack.com/subscribe/

🎙️ Like, subscribe, comment, share the show: https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/podcast/

***

As always, none of the following should be taken as investment, business, legal, or tax advice. Please see a16z.com/disclosures for more important information, including a link to a list of our investments.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.