Meta and defense firm Anduril join forces on battlefield tech
NEW YORK
Meta and defense tech startup Anduril Industries has announced a partnership to build mixed reality gear for "warfighters" — soldiers — to control autonomous systems on battlefields.
Meta will incorporate augmented reality and artificial intelligence (AI) — presumably in the likes of glasses, goggles, or visors — with an Anduril data analytics platform called Lattice, the companies said in a joint release.
"We're proud to partner with Anduril to help bring these technologies to the American servicemembers that protect our interests at home and abroad,” Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in the release.
Since Trump took back the White House, Zuckerberg has courted the president with frequent visits and notable changes to corporate policies on matters like content moderation, aligning himself politically with the Republican administration.
The Anduril alliance will have Meta taking part in courting the U.S. military.
Big tech companies are increasingly waving the U.S. flag in Washington with Trump pushing his America First agenda.
Leading this performance of nationalism are Meta, OpenAI and, more predictably, Palantir, the AI defense company founded by Peter Thiel, the conservative tech billionaire who has played a major role in Silicon Valley's rightward shift.
Meta has touted AI models like its own as "essential for the U.S. to win the AI race against China and ensure American AI dominance."
