Palmer Luckey: Oculus VR co-founder leaves Facebook after secretly funding Trump-supporting memes

'His inventive spirit helped kickstart the modern VR revolution and helped build an industry'

Aatif Sulleyman
Friday 31 March 2017 16:19 BST
Comments
Palmer Luckey sold Oculus to Facebook for $2 billion in 2014
Palmer Luckey sold Oculus to Facebook for $2 billion in 2014 (REUTERS/Robert Galbraith)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Facebook has announced that Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey is leaving the company.

The 24-year-old has kept an extremely low profile after it emerged last year that he had been funding a secret meme factory called Nimble America, to support Donald Trump’s presidential bid.

The group was revealed on Reddit’s “The Donald” forum last September, alongside posts from a user called NimbleRichMan.

“Let’s generate some success of our own,” NimbleRichMan wrote. “Make America great again with your meme magic, centipedes of The Donald!”

Mr Luckey’s most recent tweet was published on 24 September last year, and links to a Facebook update posted after the reports emerged.

“I am deeply sorry that my actions are negatively impacting the perception of Oculus and its partners,” he wrote.

“I contributed $10,000 to Nimble America because I thought the organization had fresh ideas on how to communicate with young voters through the use of several billboards.”

He added that he did not write the ‘NimbleRichMan’ posts on Reddit, and is not an employee of Nimble America.

“Palmer will be dearly missed,” Facebook told UploadVR. “Palmer’s legacy extends far beyond Oculus.

“His inventive spirit helped kickstart the modern VR revolution and helped build an industry. We’re thankful for everything he did for Oculus and VR, and we wish him all the best.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in