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Palmer Luckey, Founder @ Oculus VR Andutil Industries, during day two of Collision 2019 at Enercare Center in Toronto, Canada.

Stephen McCarthy | Sportsfile | Getty Images

Meta and Anduril, the defense-tech startup founded by Palmer Luckey, announced Thursday that they’ve formed a partnership to create virtual and augmented reality devices intended for use by the U.S. army.

The partnership represents a major step by Meta to supply cutting-edge technology to the government in addition to working once again with Luckey, who sold his Oculus VR startup to the social media company for $2 billion in 2014.

Luckey and Meta had an acrimonious split, with the Anduril founder telling CNBC in 2019 that he “got fired” from the company formerly known as Facebook “for no reason at all,” suggesting that a $10,000 donation to a pro-Donald Trump group ahead of the 2016 U.S. election could have contributed to the decision.

With Trump winning the U.S. presidency in November for the second time, Zuckerberg and other tech executives have since courted favor with the White House by making sweeping policy changes like relaxing content-moderation guidelines.

Meta has also been pitching its open-source Llama family of AI models to government agencies and in November said it would make the those tools available to government units “working on defense and national security applications, and private sector partners supporting their work.”

“Meta has spent the last decade building AI and AR to enable the computing platform of the future,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. “We’re proud to partner with Anduril to help bring these technologies to the American service members that protect our interests at home and abroad.”

In February, Anduril and Microsoft said that the defense tech startup would take over the enterprise giant’s AR headset program with the U.S. army.

Meta and Anduril have placed a joint bid on an Army contract for VR devices that is worth up to $100 million, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The two companies are working on EagleEye, a system that carries sensors that enhance soldiers’ hearing and vision, according to the report. Meta and Anduril will move forward on their partnership whether or not they win the Army contract, per the Journal.

The two companies pitched their partnership as helping the U.S. maintain a “technical edge” while aiding national security and saving the military “billions of dollars by utilizing high-performance components and technology originally built for commercial use.”

“I am glad to be working with Meta once again.” Luckey said in a statement. “Of all the areas where dual-use technology can make a difference for America, this is the one I am most excited about.”

Anduril also announced in December that it partnered with OpenAI on an artificial-intelligence initiative related to “national security missions.”

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CoreWeave CEO responds to data center delays as stock plunges. Core Scientific shares fall

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CoreWeave CEO responds to data center delays as stock plunges. Core Scientific shares fall

CoreWeave CEO responds to data center delay as stock falls

CoreWeave shares sank 13% on Tuesday after CEO Mike Intrator addressed delays at a third-party data center developer that hit full-year guidance in its latest earnings report.

“Quite frankly, every single part of this quarter went exactly as we planned, except for one delay at a singular data center,” Intrator told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Tuesday.

He then clarified that a “singular data center provider” is more accurate.

“Some people might think it’s one complex, but when I go over the numbers, we’re talking about multiple places,” CNBC’s Jim Cramer said. “And it just so happens that the places are all connected to an outfit called Core Scientific that you tried to buy.”

Cramer noted delays at complexes in Texas, Oklahoma and North Carolina.

Intrator said the companies have been working together on infrastructure for a long time a would continue work to bring it online. He did not directly confirm that Core Scientific is the third-party provider.

CoreWeave tried to acquire Core Scientific for $9 billion earlier this year. Core Scientific shareholders voted against the proposed deal. Core Scientific shares sank 7% Tuesday.

During CoreWeave’s quarterly earnings call on Monday, JPMorgan Securities analyst Mark Murphy asked if the delay was related to Core Scientific, but Intrator declined to name the company. At another point in the call, the CEO suggested that just one data center, not multiple sites, were affected.

“There was a problem at one data center that’s impacting us, but there are 41 data centers in our portfolio,” Intrator said.

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At a different point in the call, CoreWeave’s CFO Nitin Agrawal said the delays stem from “a single provider, data center provider partner.”

When reached for comment about how many sites were affected, CoreWeave did not provide a number and pointed to Intrator’s statements on the earnings call and during his “Squawk on the Street” interview.

CoreWeave, which provides infrastructure for artificial intelligence companies, reported third-quarter results on Monday that showed $1.36 billion in revenue for the period, up 134% from $583.9 million a year ago. But CoreWeave now sees 2025 revenue coming in between $5.05 billion and $5.15 billion, below the average analyst estimate of $5.29 billion.

Intrator told CNBC on Tuesday that CoreWeave has teams of employees working with contractors and Core Scientific at those sites “every single day” to get things back on track.

“It became apparent to us in Q3 that there were delays at the facility,” Intrator said. “CoreWeave responded by deploying our own boots on the ground to ensure that everything was being done in order to move those facilities along as quickly as possible.”

Intrator told analysts on Monday that the delays would not affect its backlog or get the full value from contracts.

Core Scientific did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

CoreWeave has been on a deal-making blitz as big tech companies and AI startups race to build out their computing infrastructure.

The company announced in September that it agreed to provide Meta with $14.2 billion of AI cloud infrastructure, just days after expanding its contract with OpenAI to $22.4 billion.

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Analysts call this lagging portfolio stock a buy — plus, what’s behind Nvidia’s decline

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Analysts call this lagging portfolio stock a buy — plus, what's behind Nvidia's decline

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Rocket Lab rises 3% on record third-quarter revenue, launch backlog

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Rocket Lab rises 3% on record third-quarter revenue, launch backlog

Cheng Xin | Getty Images

Rocket Lab‘s stock rose as much as 3% on Tuesday after the space company posted record revenues in the third-quarter as it scoops up more launch deals and builds its backlog.

The company, which makes satellites and rockets and provides launch services to its customers, on Monday reported revenue of $155 million for the period. That surpassed the $152 million forecast from analysts polled by LSEG, and it was up 48% from about $105 million a year ago. Rocket Lab also posted a smaller-than-expected loss of 3 cents per share, versus the 10-cent per share loss anticipated.

Additionally, Rocket Lab issued strong guidance for the current quarter, saying it expects revenues between $170 million and $180 million. Analysts had forecast $172 million in revenues.

Rocket Lab said it’s experiencing a record backlog, with 49 rocket launches on contract. The company said it signed 17 of those deals during the third quarter and plans to close out the year with over 20 launches.

In an earnings release, CEO Peter Beck said the Long Beach, California, company is “just days away” from reaching a new annual launch record. Rocket Lab is also tackling mergers and acquisitions that target key defense initiatives such as President Donald Trump’s missile defense system plan known as the ‘Golden Dome,” Beck added.

Competition is intensifying in the space technology sector as the U.S. government and NASA lean on more independent contractors, including Elon Musk‘s SpaceX, to power missions to return to the moon. Growing excitement has also brought a wave of space companies to the public markets this year, including Texas-based Firefly Aerospace.

Last month, Rocket Lab’s stock jumped more than 31% after announcing a slew of new launch deals. Shares have more than doubled this year and surged nearly 270% over the last twelve months. The stock has pulled back about 13% in November amid a broader market selloff.

During the third quarter, the company closed its acquisition of satellite sensor maker Geost and opened a new launch site for its Neutron rocket.

Rocket Lab reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of $26.3 million, topping the $21 million to $23 million loss range previously forecast. Analysts anticipated a $22.2 million adjusted EBITDA loss, according to FactSet.

The company expects adjusted EBITDA losses to range between $23 million and $29 million in the fourth quarter, surpassing the $13 million loss forecast by FactSet.

WATCH: Rocket Lab CEO talks competing for Space Force contracts

Rocket Lab CEO talks competing for Space Force contracts

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