Palmer Luckey: Every country needs a ‘warrior class’ excited to enact ‘violence on others in pursuit of good aims’
After a three-minute hype video, complete with HD footage of drones colliding and military vehicles exploding, Anduril founder Palmer Luckey stepped onto the stage at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, on Tuesday afternoon. In an hour-long conversation with Pepperdine University president Jim Gash, the billionaire raged against America’s adversaries, endorsed completely autonomous weapons, and hinted at an Anduril IPO.
In 2017, Luckey co-founded defense tech company Anduril, last valued at $14 billion, with Trae Stephens, Matt Grimm, Joe Chen, and Brian Schimpf. He made it clear he had no hesitation about Anduril building weapons.
“Societies have always needed a warrior class that is enthused and excited about enacting violence on others in pursuit of good aims,” he told Gash. “You need people like me who are sick in that way and who don’t lose any sleep making tools of violence in order to preserve freedom.”
Luckey, donning his usual uniform of a Hawaiian shirt and mullet, walked Gash through the early hours of the war in Ukraine — and why he believes Anduril could’ve made a big impact. Luckey said he first met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2019, after Zelenskyy had read about Anduril in a Wired article. He asked Luckey if Ukraine could acquire some of Anduril’s border control technology. “Unfortunately, the State Department wasn’t really wasn’t really keen on Ukraine at that point in time,” Luckey said.
