The beef between Anduril founder Palmer Luckey and Silicon Valley angel investor Jason Calacanis goes back nearly a decade – when Calacanis joined a media circus slamming Luckey for a $10,000 donation to a pro-Trump group in 2016. The donation sparked widespread backlash among Silicon Valley’s liberal elite, and resulted in calls to boycott Luckey’s Oculus VR (which he founded and sold to Facebook in 2014 for $2 billion), along with his eventual ouster from Facebook.
In 2022, Luckey confronted Calacanis – co-host of the ‘All-In’ podcast, at the VC’s own event over what he characterized as “NPC thinking” (non-playable characters, aka idiots who follow their party’s ‘current thing’).
Last year, Luckey said, “Jason just lies to his followers whenever he feels embarrassed, always blocking replies from anyone who doesn’t give him money. For example, accusing my cofounder of photoshopping his fat mug – in reality, it is a screenshot from his CNBC interview!”
This is an un-edited screenshot from your CNBC interview, Jason.
Is this another example of your famous lying sprees, or are are you seriously this out of touch with the reality of your body? pic.twitter.com/acCGOEViv9
— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) February 28, 2025
In August, 2022, two months after Luckey smoked him at the All-In event, Jason attempted to mend fences after Anduril started landing government contracts, writing “I’m grateful we have Palmer making our weapons now – we need hard-core dudes like him to keep the CCP in check” followed by flexing arm + in love emojis.
Luckey told him to “Go fuck yourself and all the other clout-chasing leeches and liars who pretend sucking my dick post-Ukraine absolves treating me like shit for years.”
Indeud…
Epstein and Calacanis
While Calacanis was busy taking potshots at Luckey for supporting Trump, it turns out he had a longstanding relationship with Jeffrey Epstein – having first met in the 1990s while trying to fundraise for a dot-com magazine, Silicon Alley Reporter. The two met at Epstein’s New York townhouse for a discussion allegedly lasting around 30 minutes according to Calacanis.
Epstein offered some advice; ‘think bigger.’
“He gave me some advice at his townhouse once when I was raising money for the magazine,” Calacanis told fa-mag. “He thought I should think bigger.”
Following Epstein’s July 2019 arrest on sex-trafficking charges, Calacanis reiterated that his contact was confined to the 1990s fundraising meeting, and denied ever flying on Epstein’s plane, visiting pedo island (Little St. James), or attending parties.
Calacanis notably appears in Epstein’s ‘black book’ – despite insisting the two had limited contact.
Hey Pal…
Turns out, not quite… A Friday release of 3 million Epstein files reveals that Calacanis introduced Epstein to early Bitcoin developers Gavin Andresen (a key contributor to Bitcoin’s core software) and Amir Taaki (an open-source advocate involved in Bitcoin and related projects) in 2011.
In his initial email to Epstein, Calacanis addresses Epstein casually, writing “hey pal,” and mentions he’s “running out to a kids birthday party,” but will “dig up their info” on Andresen and Taaki, who he describes as “crazy open source folks” who are “motivated by the same things as wikileaks.”
Calacanis offers to facilitate connections, noting he had recently featured them on his podcast or show.
The exchange continues, with Epstein eventually emailing Andresen directly.
“Calacanis offers to facilitate connections, noting he had recently featured them on his podcast or show.”
Luckey Lays it Out
Palmer took to X following the email release to call out Calacanis over the revelations.
Man starts VR company, donates to Trump: “Total moron, no moral compass!”
Man rapes children: “hey pal!”
See below;
One example where Jason simultaneously denies involvement with Epstein since the 90s and accuses my cofounder @mttgrmm of photoshopping him to look “twice as fat as I ever was”.
(It was an unaltered CNBC screenshot, he refuses to recant or acknowledge) https://t.co/YGTMEZ2ge0
— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) January 31, 2026
Yeah, you know GMAX? pic.twitter.com/nM5i4osFFB
— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) January 31, 2026
And of course…
Jason has disabled comments on his account.
— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) January 31, 2026
And that….’s the rest of the story.
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