Eight-year-old Anduril Industries is one of the most buzzed-about startups in defense tech, one of the world’s most valuable private companies, and one of the few, if only, firms whose founder considers Hawaiian shirts to be formal wear.

While Anduril has won Pentagon contracts and the line of investors looking to buy into its last fundraising was too long to accommodate, two reports late last week suggested its breakthrough technology has had some setbacks, though the company dismissed them as selective negative press from competitors.

Get Luckey

Anduril was founded in 2017 by Palmer Luckey, whose Oculus was acquired by Meta in 2014 as the foundation of its headset-making augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) unit. The new venture is focused on altering a different reality, the one in the defense sector, where major contractors like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman have a stranglehold on business. Anduril makes autonomous and AI-backed military systems including reconnaissance and combat drones, sensors and interceptors. It also develops the “command and control” AI software Lattice, which can coordinate and direct multiple unmanned assets at once.

Last year, Anduril doubled revenue to $1 billion. Earlier this year, it linked up with Luckey’s former employer Meta to take over the contract for a $22 billion US Army program to develop AR/VR headsets for soldiers. Multiple Pentagon contracts for its drones and interceptors have rolled in as well, as have partnerships with traditional defense contractors. All this activity has drawn in the venture capital A-list, with Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, BlackRock and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund on board. (Anduril is named after the sword used by protagonist Aragorn in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, while Thiel cofounded Palantir, which is also named for an object from Rings lore. Why aren’t there any Charlotte Brontë-inspired AI defense contractors?)

Anduril was last valued at $30 billion in June, when its $2.5 billion fundraising round was oversubscribed eight times, but it may still be ironing out a kink or two:

• Reuters reported Friday that Anduril’s Altius drones crashed twice during Air Force tests this month. The news agency also said Ukrainian military personnel were frustrated with its reconnaissance Ghost drone, which they found struggled against Russian jamming of satellite navigation systems.
• On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported an incident in May in which over a dozen unmanned drone boats using Lattice were automatically idled because they didn’t follow their instructions. The paper also reported that, in August, the engine of an Anduril-developed unmanned fighter jet was damaged before a planned Air Force test flight in California due to a mechanical issue. In the same month, an interceptor drone crashed and caused a 22-acre fire in Oregon.

Failure is an Option: “We do fail … a lot,” Anduril wrote in a blog post responding to the reporting. The company added, however, that the reported failures represent only a “tiny fraction” of thousands of tests. Anduril suggested the stories “present a few narrow snapshots, stripped of all context” and that they were “clearly sourced” from its competitors.

Everything old is new again, especially when you’re young and can’t afford anything actually new. Gen Z plans to reduce holiday spending by 23% this year, the most of any generation, with 63% saying they’d opt for resale and upcycled products, according to a PwC report in September.

That’s no surprise: Interest in thrifting is booming of late as inflation remains elevated and online retailers give shoppers easy access to worn clothing from brands they love. The secondhand apparel market in the US grew 14% in 2024 and is expected to reach $74 billion by 2029, according to GlobalData statistics shared in a ThredUp report.

Retailers Are Ready

Gone are the days when you had to wander endless thrift stores and sift through racks to find the perfect pair of previously owned jeans. Nowadays, shoppers are picking their next secondhand purchase from home as easily as they order take-out or scroll Instagram. Around this time of the year, that means buying for friends and family.

“Now more than ever, we’re seeing younger shoppers, especially Gen Z, leading a real shift in how people think about gifting,” said Nicole Lashkari, senior director of community and seller engagement at fashion resale marketplace Poshmark. “They’re intentional, value-conscious and incredibly creative, which makes secondhand the perfect fit.”

To meet that demand, Poshmark rolled out what Lashkari called its most ambitious holiday campaign yet, including interactive experiences in New York City, a series of promotions for Cyber Weekend, and a new holiday television spot and creator partnerships targeting young shoppers for Secondhand Sunday on Nov. 30. It’s not alone:

• TheRealReal — a company with a 32% growth rate in Gen Z buyers year-over-year, according to a company spokesperson — offered a slew of holiday promotions during the last week of November. Earlier this year, the online marketplace launched an AI-enabled processing platform that is expected to handle up to 40% of its inbound consignment items by the end of the year.
• ThredUp’s Black Friday sale included 50% off and free shipping, and Depop has a page on its site dedicated to gifts under $20.

Second Chances: Even Goodwill, the non-profit thrift store around since 1902, is getting a makeover and targeting shoppers through TikTok, The Wall Street Journal reported. So consider yourself warned, and please don’t be shocked if you find other people’s stuff in your stocking this Christmas.

The Hamburglar isn’t committing petty theft anymore. At these prices, it’s grand larceny.

Ensnared in the trade war, the price of beef has skyrocketed this year, replacing eggs in recent weeks as America’s grocery inflation gauge du jour. The mini-crisis prompted the White House to wage war on beef prices, but the damage may already have been done.

High Steaks

US shoppers are now paying an average price of $6.60 per pound for ground beef, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (Meanwhile, Kansas State University’s Meat Demand Monitor showed the October price near $10 per pound). Last week, the BLS’s September Producer Price Index report showed that the cost of beef and veal is up an astounding 38% year-over-year. The why is hardly a mystery. In July, the White House slapped 40% tariffs on beef imports from Brazil, the world’s top supplier. Those import duties were lifted last week as part of the administration’s new affordability push, but they had already curbed supply and pushed prices up.

Complicating matters further? Demand keeps rising despite persistent price hikes (blame everyone’s sudden protein obsession), just as the domestic supply chain suffers a major loss:

• Beef volume sales in US stores are up 5% year-over-year in the 52 weeks ending in early November, according to Circana data seen by Bloomberg. That’s a bigger rise than any other protein.
• Meanwhile, Tyson announced earlier this month that it would close a major beef plant in Lexington, Nebraska, while reducing shifts and capacity at another plant in Amarillo, Texas. Combined, the cuts may reduce US beef production capacity by as much as 9%.

Ground Game: Still, the trade war maneuvers and Tyson’s cuts are but exacerbating factors of a much larger problem. Cattle herds on US ranches are now at the lowest level since 1973, according to the US Department of Agriculture, as ranchers face the triple threat of expensive feed, high interest rates and devastating droughts. Where’s the beef? In the vault with the other valuables.