Anduril Industries to Go Public, Says CEO Palmer Luckey
Defense tech startup Anduril Industries is set to become a publicly traded company, according to founder and CEO Palmer Luckey. “We are definitely going to be a publicly traded company,” Luckey told CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime” on Tuesday. The decision is driven by the need to secure significant trillion-dollar defense contracts, which Luckey believes is challenging for private companies like Anduril.
Anduril has emerged as one of the most highly valued private U.S. technology companies, innovating in the defense tech space and competing with industry leaders like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. The company was founded by Luckey in 2017 after his departure from Meta, where he had sold his virtual reality headset company Oculus in 2014. Despite being ousted from Meta, Luckey noted that his company has since collaborated with Meta on a joint partnership to create virtual and augmented reality devices for the U.S. Army.
Anduril has continued to secure significant funding despite a challenging deal environment. Chairman Trae Stephens revealed to Bloomberg that Anduril recently raised $2.5 billion at a $30.5 billion valuation, more than doubling its valuation from a previous funding round led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. The company has also taken over Microsoft’s $22 billion augmented-reality headset program with the U.S. Army and announced a partnership with OpenAI in December.
The decision to go public comes as Anduril tops the 2025 CNBC Disruptor 50 list, highlighting its prominence in the defense tech industry. While Luckey did not provide a specific IPO timeline, the company’s preparations for becoming publicly traded are underway. Anduril’s rise is indicative of the growing interest and investment in defense technology, with the company planning to invest roughly $1 billion in a manufacturing facility in Ohio.
