Anduril Industries co-founder Palmer Luckey says the military defense company will go public “in the next few years.”
Luckey has been dropping hints about a public listing for months, telling CNBC in June it will “definitely” happen but without giving a time frame. There has been speculation that it could happen next year.
In a dialogue with Chapman University’s new President Matt Parlow on Oct. 14, Luckey was asked what’s next for the restless entrepreneur.
“Anduril’s doing a lot of really big stuff,” Luckey replied during the luncheon talk at the Fish Interfaith Center on campus in Orange. “We’re in the next few years going to IPO, so we’re trying to get the company into a good state there.
“We want to be a profitable company before we go to the public markets. There’s a lot of work to be done,” he said, adding that the company will be “announcing a bunch of new products.”
Potential Anduril Shareholders
Costa Mesa-based Anduril makes an array of autonomous weapons, ranging from airborne drones to underwater drones and cruise missiles. Anduril is vying to take part in President Donald Trump’s proposed missile defense network that he has dubbed Golden Dome.
Potential shareholders have been relishing the thought of being a part of the fastest-growing defense company in the U.S. Its most recent $2.5 billion fundraise in June valued the company at $30.5 billion, double the amount in 2024.
The company has been expanding at a breakneck pace.
It recently completed a deal to take over The Hive, a three-building campus that previously held the base for the Los Angeles Chargers football team. The trio of offices along S. Susan Street totals about 190,000 square feet. Anduril’s latest deal marks the largest office lease in Orange County in four years, according to data from real estate tracker CoStar.
Anduril now leases close to 1.5 million square feet of office and warehouse space in Orange County, according to Business Journal data. It is now comfortably the area’s largest office tenant by square footage, and the company has nearly doubled its local real estate footprint over the past year.
Anduril is also building a 5-million-square foot manufacturing plant near Columbus, Ohio, that is called “Arsenal-1.”
“We’ve already hired our first batch of employees,” Luckey said during the Chapman event, referring to the Ohio plant.
He also praised Ohio’s energy policy, contrasting it with what he called the mistakes of California’s energy framework.
Anduril, which Luckey co-founded in 2017, is not yet believed to be turning a profit, though its annual revenue has reportedly climbed to $1 billion.
Luckey has previously acknowledged that being a private company has been a drawback in its dealings with the Pentagon, providing some impetus to go public as the firm expands.
He has also said the firm needs to be on a sound financial footing before selling shares on a stock exchange.
Anduril has about 6,000 employees companywide.
Golden Dome Role Sought
The talk with Luckey was part of Parlow’s inauguration as the university’s 14th president.
For almost an hour, Luckey touched on topics ranging from nonprofit prisons to hamburgers made almost entirely from petroleum.
He said the company is heavily into artificial intelligence, noting that the initials of Anduril Industries are AI.
With a few young university students sprinkled in among the 150 invited luncheon guests, 33-year-old Luckey also had some advice for young people:
“Don’t trust your parents. Parents are notoriously bad at evaluating their children’s abilities and capabilities in both directions. Parents often vastly overestimate their children’s abilities, and then they also under-estimate their capabilities in other areas.”
Luckey’s New Bank Gets Conditional OK
Palmer Luckey, the co-founder of defense company Anduril Industries, has received a conditional green light from federal regulators for a cryptocurrency-focused national bank that he and other heavy-hitter investors are looking to launch.
The new financial institution, called Erebor Bank, will be based in Columbus, Ohio, near where Anduril is building a 5-million-square-foot manufacturing plant.
“The OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) granted preliminary conditional approval to Erebor Bank after thorough review of its application. In granting this charter, the OCC applied the same rigorous review and standards applied to all charter applications,” the agency said in an Oct. 15 statement.
“Today’s decision is also proof that the OCC under my leadership does not impose blanket barriers to banks that want to engage in digital asset activities,” Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said in the statement.
Luckey has been working with fellow supporters of President Donald Trump—such as Peter Thiel and Joe Lonsdale—to start the bank to aid fledgling tech companies and other potentially risky ventures.
The targeted starting valuation: $2 billion, according to summer news reports.
“The OCC has granted preliminary conditional approval only,” the agency’s senior deputy comptroller wrote to Erebor’s lawyers. “Final approval and authorization for the Bank to open will not be granted until all preopening requirements are met.”
