“I’m actually a radical Zionist.”

That was Palmer Luckey, founder of Anduril Industries, speaking with Shawn Ryan in a 2025 interview. He goes on to explain his support for Israel as a Jewish state, saying he loves Jewish people more than practically anyone. He even raises the question of Palestinians himself, only to call it “a separate political issue.” 1:10 👇🏼📽️

So who exactly is Palmer Luckey?

Would you be surprised if I told you he’s yet another tech billionaire whose success story began in his parents’ garage? 🫩

Luckey grew up in Long Beach, California. His father sold cars, and his mother homeschooled him and his three younger sisters.

Fun Fact: His younger sister, Ginger, just happens to be married to Matt Gaetz. They met at Kimberly Guilfoyle’s birthday party at Mar-a-Lago in March 2020. By December, they were engaged at, you guessed it, Mar-a-Lago. Then they married in August 2021. 👰🏼‍♀️🤵🏻

So back to Palmer…

In 2012, at just 19 years old, he founded Oculus VR after developing virtual reality headsets in the family garage. 👁️

And who, you might ask, was willing to hand a 19-year-old garage inventor $1 million to help launch Oculus? That would be Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.

Then in 2014, Facebook acquired Oculus for approximately $2 billion. Luckey was only 21 years old.

Fast-forward past his falling out with Mark Zuckerberg to 2017, when Luckey co-founded Anduril Industries, a company that develops autonomous weapons, military drones, surveillance systems, electronic warfare technology, and underwater vehicles. Because why wouldn’t a gamer from California be welcomed with open arms by the military-industrial complex?

And who helped finance Anduril? You guessed it.

Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. Again.

Luckey is happy to explain NOW that the initials “AI” in Anduril Industries were intentional. But back in 2017, artificial intelligence was a bit of a dirty word, so they kept it kinda quiet. These days, he’s quite pleased with the acronym.

But not surprisingly, there’s another story behind it.

Anduril is Aragorn’s sword in The Lord of the Rings, known as the Flame of the West. 🗡️

I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that Peter Thiel’s Palantir Technologies is named after Tolkien’s seeing stones, which allowed people to observe distant events. 🔮

And then there’s Mithril Capital, another Thiel-founded investment firm, named after Tolkien’s rare and valuable metal.

And who worked there?

Vice President JD Vance, Charlie Kirk’s close friend and longtime supporter of Turning Point USA.

Vance later co-founded Narya Capital, named after one of the Three Elven Rings, with backing from Thiel and Marc Andreessen. 💍

Thiel also co-founded Valar Ventures, another Tolkien reference.

And Luckey has another venture called Erebor, a bank catering to technology companies, particularly those involved in cryptocurrency, AI, and defense.

Erebor is the Lonely Mountain from The Hobbit, where Smaug guarded his treasure. 💎

And who’s among the investors?

Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Marc Andreessen’s Andreessen Horowitz.

That’s Anduril, Palantir, Mithril, Narya, Valar, and Erebor. At this rate, they’re going to run out of things in Middle-earth to name companies after.

And speaking of Middle-earth, Luckey has some rather interesting ideas about subterranean warfare. Not just tunnels or underground bunkers. He’s talking about autonomous weapons and vehicles traveling through the actual crust of the Earth, using it as an entirely new battlefield. And according to Luckey, Anduril already has working prototypes.

Anduril Industries has been actively supplying military technology for use in Ukraine’s war against Russia and is now pursuing defense business in Israel.

Trust me when I say, what I’ve covered so far is only scratching the surface…

No pun intended.