Palmer Lackey’s Concerns About Big Tech and Democracy

Back in 2018, Google made a move that Palmer Lackey sees as “really, really dangerous.” After facing backlash from thousands of employees, the tech giant decided to pull out of the Pentagon’s Project Maven. This initiative aimed to leverage artificial intelligence for analyzing surveillance data—and possibly for targeted drone strikes.

Google was among the first tech companies to distance itself from the Department of Defense, but certainly not the last. Lackey fears that this shift threatens democracy, suggesting that executives from Silicon Valley could wield more influence than even the President of the United States.

“For the first time in history, the most valuable technology company has refused to cooperate with the military,” he remarked during a recent visit to the New York Post’s headquarters. As the founder of defense tech firm Anduril Industries, the 33-year-old insists that decision-making should rest with elected officials. “If anyone thinks differently, they’re on a path toward something much darker,” he stated.

For someone like Lackey, who is often seen as a disruptor in the industry, trusting Washington may seem surprising. Yet it highlights an essential part of his character: a staunch patriot who values American dominance and advocates for innovation while opposing unrestrained Big Tech power.

Lackey’s views are shaped by observing companies that became victims of their own overreach. After selling his virtual reality startup Oculus—a venture he started in his parents’ garage—to Facebook for $2 billion in 2014, he was ousted three years later for donating to a Trump-supporting group, which sparked a significant backlash from Facebook employees.

Now, years later, he reflects on watching tech leaders position themselves behind the president during his inauguration. While he acknowledges some opportunism among them, he’s relieved that the era of silencing dissenting voices is fading. “I think the Democrats are more at fault than the platforms trying to navigate political pressures,” he noted, referencing some companies’ concessions to the Biden administration.

Also, he feels strongly that tech leaders need to show fewer concessions to a vocal minority of employees who may lack broader perspectives. “If you chat with tech company leaders, they’re all saying, ‘Never again,'” he explained, continuing to emphasize a desire for more courage among these executives.

Lackey, who has stayed in California amid a trend of tech billionaires relocating, is rooted in his home state. Wearing his signature Hawaiian shirt, he runs Anduril from Costa Mesa, where the company is expanding with plans for a massive 1.18-million-square-foot campus near Long Beach. “I love California,” he declared, though he admits that if the business climate becomes too stifling, he might have no choice but to leave.

In founding Anduril in 2017 after his Facebook departure, Lackey has taken a bold stance toward Washington and the defense sector. Interestingly, for someone benefiting significantly from defense contracts, he advocates for renaming the Pentagon to the Department of the Army, suggesting that the current name obscures decades of inefficient spending.

“It has been something that’s been on my mind for a while,” he expressed. Once Mr. Trump was back in office, he pushed for this change, believing it would prompt more fiscal responsibility. “The Pentagon feels like a strange, dystopian construct. Building a war machine and calling it defense? This is the Department of War; it’s a war budget,” he added. He feels this could lead to better decision-making.

This concept aligns with Anduril’s mission: to use cutting-edge technology to make defense more effective and efficient.

Moreover, Lackey is often compared to a real-life Tony Stark, partly because the tools he’s helped create seem straight out of a sci-fi movie. Anduril’s innovations include the Fury, an AI-driven fighter jet, and the stealth submarine drone Ghost Shark, designed for the Royal Australian Navy. There’s also the Roadrunner, an interceptor drone capable of reusing itself, the Bolt—a compact drone deployable by a single soldier—and Anvil, which autonomously neutralizes enemy drones.

And then there’s Lattice, Anduril’s AI system, which integrates data and technology across various environments in real-time.

These advancements have doubled Anduril’s valuation to $60 billion within just a year, positioning it as a major player in defense tech. Unlike many Silicon Valley peers touting grand visions of improving the world, Lackey represents a different narrative—one of advocating for checks on tech power.

“Most people don’t consider the weight of influence they could wield if they choose to manipulate it,” he cautioned. “Please don’t forgive us. Please don’t forgive us.”