Meta & Anduril Partner on Military XR
Source: xrtoday.com
Following the shifts in the US Army IVAS project, where Microsoft’s HoloLens was replaced by Anduril, Meta appears to be gaining a major opportunity through a new partnership to develop mixed reality for warfighters.
Meta's Reality Labs division, despite financial losses from technology investments, is entering a partnership with Anduril. According to Meta's CTO, this year is crucial for the XR firm.
The collaboration involves Meta helping to create XR products for battlefield warfighters. Meta's CTO stated that this partnership will give people access to limitless intelligence and extend their senses. The advancement of the IVAS project is now driven by private capital, aiming to save the U.S. military billions of dollars using tech intended for commercial use.
Meta and Anduril's mixed reality technologies will be integrated into Anduril’s Lattice AI platform for battlefield intelligence. Meta's expansion into U.S. government technology builds upon Reality Labs and Llama investments. Meta's CEO said they are proud to partner with Anduril to bring AI and AR technologies to American servicemembers. Anduril's Founder noted his excitement to work with Meta again, aiming to turn warfighters into technomancers through their products.
Reality Labs Financials
Meta's CFO, highlighted challenges within the Meta Reality Labs segment. First-quarter revenue reached $412 million, a 6% decrease, mainly from lower Meta Quest device sales. However, increased Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses sales partially offset this. Reality Labs expenses totaled $4.6 billion, up 8% year-over-year due to higher employee compensation. The operating loss for Reality Labs was $4.2 billion, viewed as a long-term investment.
The CFO noted strong traction with Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, with over 4x as many monthly active users as a year ago, and increasing use of voice commands. Live translations on Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses have been fully rolled out in English, French, Italian, and Spanish.
This move could provide funding, similar to HoloLens. Microsoft lost the IVAS contract, estimated at $22 billion. While HoloLens has enterprise applications, the IVAS contract was important. Anduril is now developing and producing a mixed-reality device, building on Microsoft’s HoloLens-powered IVAS work. Microsoft will still support the project with backend infrastructure and AI frameworks.
Reports suggest potential discontinuation of HoloLens devices and the end of technical support. This became more critical after Microsoft lost the U.S. Military IVAS contract, valued at approximately $22 billion.