When drones attack
AI on the battlefield
Good morning, merciless warmongers. This is your Stock Market Rundown for September 8th, 2023. Thanks for joining me. Let’s dig in:
TODAY’S TOP STORY: GUARDING THE FORT IN FLIP-FLOPS 🩴
You may have heard of Horizon Worlds, Facebook’s attempt to create a virtual universe, which flopped royally. But Facebook’s initial foray into VR didn’t come from the boardrooms of its Menlo Park campus.
It came from a gaming headset invented by a guy who dropped out of college, and funded his business with a Kickstarter campaign.
Palmer Luckey founded Oculus, a virtual reality hardware company, when he was just 19 years old. Fast forward to two years later: he sold the business to Facebook for a casual $2 billion.
The aptly-named Luckey is known for sporting a uniform of Hawaiian shirts and flip flops, and for supporting Trump in the 2016 election. In fact, his support of Teflon Don may have been partly why he was fired from Facebook three years after they acquired his company. (CEO Mark Zuckerberg denied that the firing had anything to do with politics. Sure, Mark.)
With a multi-billion-dollar exit under his belt, Luckey could have easily spent the rest of his life chilling on a beach. But rather than retiring to Margaritaville, he returned to the arena.
He founded a defense-tech company, Anduril Industries, that uses artificial intelligence for national security applications, including autonomous sensors and drones that detect threats. Some pacifists point to ethical concerns with supplying the military, but venture capital investors have blissfully ignored the moral hand-wringing—Anduril’s last funding round valued it at $8 billion.
It may not be long before Joe Retail can invest in this warfare play. When asked in a recent interview about IPO plans, Luckey said going public is “a goal”, and that he plans to spend the next few years building the company “so it’s the right shape for a Wall Street weenie to tell his boss that we are a safe part of their institutional portfolio.” Clearly a man who understands the institutional investor mindset.
SO WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
More than half of the aluminum in Apple products are from recycled sources, the company has said. Maybe the next can of Mountain Dew Code Red you crush will eventually turn into a pair of AirPods.
One of the secrets to being—and staying—a billionaire? Don’t pay taxes. Berkshire Hathaway’s energy division has paid zero taxes in the past five years. The secret is Warren’s windmills: his tax bill was offset by tax credits from wind-powered electricity generation. That’s worth shredding a few seagulls.
Tyson Foods, which supplies one-fifth of the US chicken supply, is shutting down production lines amidst oversupply. Who knew chicken prices are as volatile as oil or gold? Better hedge your drumsticks.
It’s finally happening: Americans are getting into soccer. Apple’s streaming TV service just debuted MLS Season Pass so US soccer fans can watch grown men writhe in agony on the pitch after a friendly jostle.
That’s it for today and for this week, my friends; see you at the usual time Monday morning. Yours in capitalism, The Axe