At the defense-tech company Anduril, executives are betting on both parties ahead of Election Day

Anduril Industries, a military defense-tech company based in Costa Mesa, has more than doubled its revenue since President Donald Trump came into his second term, and is projected to double its gains again this year, according to the private markets research company Sacra.

Its most visible political figure is founder Palmer Luckey, a 34-year-old tech entrepreneur and billionaire who’s been called the “godfather of Republican fundraising on the West Coast.”

Luckey has pumped more than $350,000 into over 70 campaigns across the country this cycle, and all but two of those campaigns were for Republicans, according to an analysis of the latest Federal Election Commission, or FEC, campaign records.

The analysis includes processed FEC contributions through June 30 and the most recent filings available through Oct. 14 that the FEC has yet to review. The totals can marginally shift based on amendments or refunds and other reconciliations of the filings.

The records show the company CEO and COO have donated exclusively to Democrats running for Congress during that time period, following similar donation patterns from previous cycles.

Luckey, CEO Brian Schimpf, COO Matt Grimm, and a spokesperson for Anduril did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The records show that while Luckey donated over $350,000 to federal candidates for this election cycle, Schimpf and Grimm have donated about that same amount to Democratic candidates.

This divide is just business as usual, said Mike Madrid, a California-based GOP consultant.

“There’s nothing more nefarious than what it presents itself as,” Madrid said. “Which is a multi-billion-dollar defense company [that] wants to make sure that it has relationships regardless of who is in control of which branch of government.”

Others say the routine nature of this type of giving is itself the problem. Brendan Fischer, director of strategic investigations at Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit in Washington, D.C., said those with the deepest pockets often have the loudest voice in Washington.

“With fewer limits on money in politics, a small number of corporations and executives can have an even greater influence in our elections and over our elected officials,” he said.

The Anduril Industries, Inc. logo is seen on a pavilion at Farnborough International Exhibition Centre on July 24, 2026 in Farnborough, England. The Farnborough International Airshow hosts leading innovators from the aerospace, aviation and defense industries.

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Divide at Anduril 

Luckey founded Anduril alongside Schimpf and Grimm. He grew up in Long Beach, homeschooled by his mother. Luckey began attending Golden West College and Long Beach City College at the age of 14, and studied at California State University, Long Beach, before dropping out to build Oculus VR. He amassed his wealth when Facebook bought the startup for $2 billion in 2014.

In addition to campaign donations, Luckey hosted fundraisers this summer for Republicans including Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Rick Scott of Florida, and Rep. Ken Calvert of California, according to The Guardian. FEC records show Luckey’s cumulative federal election contributions to GOP-affiliated committees total above $1 million in this election cycle.

“He’s clearly a very influential bundler and fundraiser,” Madrid said.

Luckey started Anduril in 2017 with four others: Grimm, Schimpf, Trae Stephens and Joe Chen. That June, executives pitched low-cost border surveillance to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection paid the company to test it.

Anduril now employs about 8,000 people and generated $2.2 billion in revenue last year. Forbes reported that the Pentagon had more than 120 separate deals with the company before a March software deal with the U.S. Army worth up to $20 billion. That contract allows the military to speed up the purchase and deployment of AI-powered software and hardware, primarily for anti-drone defense.

Luckey's giving tells only half the story of Anduril's politics. Grimm and Schimpf, who run the company day-to-day, have given only to Democrats running for Congress this cycle, the FEC records show.

And their resources are vast. After a $5 billion funding round in May valued Anduril at $61 billion, Forbes estimated Schimpf, the 42-year-old CEO, a veteran of the defense company Palantir, was worth $1.5 billion, making him the company's third billionaire.

Brian Schimpf, chief executive officer of Anduril Industries, speaks during an event at Tradepoint Atlantic in Sparrows Point, in Baltimore County, Maryland, on Oct. 6, 2026. President Trump announced a $3.7 billion investment by defense contractor Anduril Industries to build a new shipyard at Tradepoint Atlantic, which will manufacture Virginia-class attack submarines.

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Schimpf and Grimm have together given at least $360,000 to Democratic candidates’ campaigns this cycle, according to the FEC records. Schimpf gave $218,000 and Grimm $142,000. Federal law caps how much one person can give to each candidate’s committee, but not how much a person can give in total, meaning the two can spread their donations across dozens of campaigns. If additional committees — joint fundraising and party committees — are included, that total from the two executives is nearly $1 million.

Anduril's own political action committee, Anduril PAC, gave $94,000 to Republicans’ and $84,000 to Democrats’ campaigns this cycle, according to the FEC records.

Thaddeus Kousser, a political science professor at the University of California, San Diego, said the PAC is following a typical strategy of giving, and "retaining access to both sides to make their case in a capitol," rather than spending only on the political party who holds the majority.

Kousser added that the split among the Anduril executives is less common — with Luckey largely backing Republicans, and Schimpf and Grimm backing Democrats.

Anduril contracts have soared in recent years 

Anduril’s business relationship with the federal government began during Trump’s first term.

Since Trump returned to office, the size of its deals has grown sharply. The company’s first defense contract win, a $12.5 million Marine Corps deal, dates back to 2018, about a year after the company got its start, according to Sacra. Then in 2020, Anduril won border surveillance tower deals with CBP worth $25 million to $36 million, according to Anduril’s newsletter. Anduril also won a nearly $1 billion contract from the U.S. Special Operations Command in January 2022 during President Joe Biden’s administration.

In March, Anduril was awarded a 10-year, sole-source Army contract with a ceiling allowing them to spend up to $20 billion, about 20 times the 2022 award.

The deals have kept coming. In June, CBP awarded Anduril a $363 million contract to supply over 200 80-foot surveillance towers across the U.S.-Mexico border in the Southwest. On Oct. 6, Trump visited Sparrows Point, Maryland to announce a $6.6 billion public-private investment anchored by a $2.9 billion Navy contract for Anduril to build a “software-defined shipyard” at Sparrows Point. 

Campaign spending in California 

Luckey and Anduril’s executives aren’t just spending on federal candidates across the aisle — they’ve also backed opposite sides of California’s governor’s race. A review of state campaign spending records shows the same split that appears in their individual giving at the federal level. The governor's race is the clearest example, where leaders of the company gave the legal maximums to rival campaigns.

Palmer Luckey

• Gave $39,200 to Republican Steve Hilton's campaign for governor during the primary election in June, the max allowed per election.
• A $19,595 contribution in October brought Luckey’s total to Hilton for the primary and general election this year to $58,795. 
• Luckey also gave to Michael Gates for California attorney general, Don Wagner for California's secretary of state and a California state Senate candidate running for reelection, Tony Strickland. All three are Republicans. 
• Luckey’s mother, Julie Luckey, also plays a major role in California politics. She led the campaign to get California’s Prop. 39 on the ballot and is its primary fundraiser. If approved, the November ballot measure would change the state’s constitution to require voters to provide a government-issued ID when they cast a ballot. 
  

Brian Schimpf and Matt Grimm

• Schimpf gave $39,200, the maximum allowed by state rules, to Democrat Eric Swalwell's campaign for governor in December 2025, before he suspended his campaign following multiple sexual harassment allegations that he denied at the time. 
• Schimpf gave another $39,200 to Democrat Xavier Becerra's campaign for governor in October.
• Grimm gave Becerra $39,200 in October. Grimm also donated $2,500 to Brian Goldsmith, a Democrat running for State Senate in California’s 24th district.
  

The records show no contributions from the three Anduril executives to state ballot measure committees.

Schimpf focused his contributions toward California candidates: 11, who received a cumulative total of at least $50,500. Grimm gave Rep. Dave Min (D-Calif.) the maximum, $7,000, one of nine candidates he gave the maximum amount allowed. Min, who represents coastal Orange County, has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration, and joined Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) in an oversight push on Trump's pardons.

National influence

Most of Schimpf's total donations, nearly three quarters of $1 million dollars, did not go to individual candidates. FEC records show more than two-thirds of it, over $520,000, went to the Democrats' House and Senate campaign committees and to joint fundraising committees, which take one large check and split it among several campaigns and party committees.

At least an additional $218,000 went to candidates, many of whom have committee seat oversight roles for the defense industry or ties through their own backgrounds, the records show. He gave to 15 of the 27 Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee. Grimm gave to six of those members, according to the records.

Luckey's giving points the other way. Of the more than 70 federal campaigns he supported in U.S House or Senate races, only two were Democrats: Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas and Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota, the records show.

The practice of strategic donations to both sides of the aisle isn’t new, but the scale has changed, said Madrid, the GOP consultant.

"I don't believe for a moment that there's anything more nefarious going on here than what has been going on for the entirety of the existence of the republic," he said. However, there are "a lot more billionaires than there used to be."

Fischer, with the Campaign Legal Center, said campaign donations can have significant consequences for taxpayers.

“There's a well-documented record of federal contractors using their corporate resources to support lawmakers, and those lawmakers then channeling rewards in the form of taxpayer-funded contracts,” he said. “Taxpayer dollars are being used to reward political donors rather than to advance the public's interest.”

Gerald Rich and Maloy Moore contributed to this story.