1. Palmer Freeman Luckey was born on September 19,1992 and is an American entrepreneur best known as the founder of Oculus VR and designer of the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality head-mounted display that is widely credited with reviving the virtual reality industry.
In 2017, Luckey left Oculus and founded military contractor Anduril Industries, a military technology company focused on autonomous drones and sensors for military applications.
Palmer Luckey ranked number 22 on Forbes 2016 List of America's Richest Entrepreneurs Under 40.
Palmer Luckey was born and raised in Long Beach, California, with three younger sisters.
Palmer Luckey took courses at Golden West College and Long Beach City College beginning at the age of 14 or 15, and then at California State University, Long Beach in 2010.
Palmer Luckey later majored in journalism at CSU Long Beach, where he wrote and was online editor for the university's student-run newspaper, the Daily 49er.
Palmer Luckey built a PC gaming "rig" worth tens of thousands of US dollars with an elaborate six-monitor setup.
Palmer Luckey completed his first prototype, called PR1, at age 17 in his parents' garage, which featured a 90-degree field of view, low latency, and built-in haptic feedback.
Palmer Luckey developed a series of prototypes exploring features like 3D stereoscopy, wireless, and extreme 270-degree field-of-view, while decreasing the size and weight of his systems.
Palmer Luckey shared regular updates on his progress on MTBS3D, a forum frequented by a small number of virtual reality enthusiasts.
Palmer Luckey called his 6th-generation unit the "Oculus Rift", which was intended to be sold as a do-it-yourself kit on Kickstarter to fellow enthusiasts.
Palmer Luckey launched Oculus VR in April 2012 to facilitate the official launch of the Kickstarter campaign.
John Carmack of id Software, a game developer famous for his work on the Doom and Quake video game series, requested a prototype headset from Palmer Luckey, who lent it to Carmack free of charge.
ZeniMax claimed it had invested "tens of millions of dollars in research and development" into VR technology, and that "Oculus and Palmer Luckey lacked the necessary expertise and technical know-how to create a viable virtual reality headset".
The jury found that Palmer Luckey had violated a non-disclosure agreement he had with ZeniMax, but awarded zero damages on this charge, judging the harm as de minimis.
In June 2018, the judge overseeing the case dismissed all damages owed by Palmer Luckey and reduced the amount owed by other parties to $250 million.
In September 2016, it was reported that Palmer Luckey had donated $10,000 to Nimble America, a pro-Donald Trump group that ran a billboard depicting 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton with the caption "Too Big to Jail".
Tomorrow Today Labs said they would not support the Oculus Touch as long as Palmer Luckey is employed by Oculus.
In March 2017, Palmer Luckey left Facebook, and stopped his involvement with Oculus VR.
In June 2017, Palmer Luckey founded the autonomy-focused military technology company Anduril Industries, along with former Palantir Technologies executives Matt Grimm, Trae Stephens, and Brian Schimpf, and early Oculus VR Hardware Lead Joseph Chen.
In September 2020, Palmer Luckey announced through Twitter that Anduril had received a contract worth $967M for the Advanced Battle Management Systems, a cutting-edge multi-billion dollar project by the US Air Force.
In June 2024, ModRetro, founded by Palmer Luckey, released its first product, the ModRetro Chromatic, a handheld retrogaming device capable of playing original games designed for Game Boy, developed by Nintendo, launched in 1989.
In 2014, Palmer Luckey was described as "the face of virtual reality in gaming" and a celebrity among virtual reality enthusiasts; however, he does not consider himself to be a celebrity.
Palmer Luckey maintains a casual appearance, is frequently barefoot, and prefers sandals to shoes even at trade shows and events.
In 2015, a Forbes article stated that Palmer Luckey lived in a shared house with several others where they regularly played multiplayer videogames and typically wore casual clothes like shorts, T-shirts, Hawaiian shirts, and sandals.
In September 2016, Palmer Luckey stated he is a libertarian who had supported Ron Paul and Gary Johnson in past elections.
The Wall Street Journal later reported that Palmer Luckey had been pressured into making this statement as a condition of employment.
In October 2020, Palmer Luckey hosted a fundraiser for Donald Trump at his home in Lido Isle, Newport Beach, with the president in attendance.
On June 8,2024, Palmer Luckey co-hosted another fundraiser for Trump at the home of health insurance company co-founder John Word, where donors spent up to $100,000 per person to attend.
Palmer Luckey has donated to the campaigns of dozens of Republican political candidates, including US Senator Ted Cruz and candidates for the US House of Representatives.
Palmer Luckey has donated to a large number of Republican- and conservative-affiliated organizations, including the National Republican Congressional Committee, the 2017 Presidential Inaugural Committee, Mike Pence's Great America Committee, and many state Republican Party chapters.
In November 2022, it was announced that as a commemoration of the anime Sword Art Online, Palmer Luckey created a VR headset art piece that kills its human user in real life when the user dies digitally in the video game, by means of several explosive charges affixed above the screen, on what appears to be a modified Meta Quest Pro, to aim the blast at the user's forebrain.
In 2014, Palmer Luckey was the recipient of Smithsonian magazine's American Ingenuity Award in the Youth category.
In 2016, Palmer Luckey was awarded the Royal Photographic Society Progress medal and Honorary Fellowship, which is awarded in recognition of any invention, research, publication or other contribution that has resulted in an important advance in the scientific or technological development of photography or imaging in the widest sense.
Palmer Luckey married his long-time girlfriend and professional gamer Nicole Edelmann in 2019.