Late Friday, the U.S. Army announced a 10-year agreement with defense technology company Anduril, potentially valued at $20 billion.
The announcement details that the contract includes a five-year initial phase, with a potential extension for another five years, covering Anduril’s hardware, software, infrastructure, and services.
This agreement is characterized by the Army as a unified enterprise contract, streamlining over 120 previous individual procurement actions for Anduril’s commercial offerings.
Gabe Chiulli, CTO for the Department of Defense’s Office of the Chief Information Officer, stated, “Software increasingly defines the modern battlefield. To maintain our strategic edge, we must rapidly and efficiently acquire and deploy software capabilities.”
Palmer Luckey, known for selling the VR startup Oculus to Facebook (now Meta), co-founded Anduril. Facebook dismissed Luckey after reports surfaced of his donations to a pro-Trump political organization, sparking controversy.
While Luckey has consistently maintained that his political perspectives were misportrayed by the media, a recent New York Times article indicates that Luckey and Anduril have found favor with the second Trump administration. This is attributed to his ambitious vision for modernizing the U.S. military through autonomous fighter jets, drones, submarines, and other technologies. The company, named after a “Lord of the Rings” artifact like Palantir, reportedly generated approximately $2 billion in revenue last year.
Additionally, various reports suggest that Anduril is discussing a new funding round that could value the company at $60 billion.
This announcement coincides with ongoing friction between the Department of Defense and Anthropic, where the AI firm has initiated legal action against the DoD for labeling it a supply chain risk after unsuccessful contract talks. Meanwhile, OpenAI has encountered public criticism and experienced at least one executive resignation following its own Pentagon agreement.
In a recent X post, Luckey asserted that Anthropic’s stance on limiting AI use in autonomous weapons or domestic mass surveillance represents “an untenable position that the United States cannot possibly accept.”