- Palmer Luckey has asked: Would you buy a ‘Made In America’ laptop from his firm Anduril for 20% more than a MacBook?
- The results of that poll on X currently show almost two-thirds of respondents would
- How such a notebook might be realized at this cost level is, however, far from clear – and there are lots of question marks here
Would you buy a laptop that was fully made in America if it cost 20% more than an Apple notebook made in China?
Tom’s Hardware reports that this is a question Palmer Luckey has posed on X (and elsewhere, such as the Reindustrialize Summit), complete with a poll to test the waters.
Would you buy a Made In America computer from Anduril for 20% more than Chinese-manufactured options from Apple?July 20, 2025
If you’re scratching around in corners of your brain trying to remember what Luckey was famous for in the tech world, it was, of course, the creation of the Oculus Rift – though his company was eventually swallowed up by Facebook.
You may like
Since then, Luckey has been dabbling in a few things, including crypto and military tech, the latter of which is the mentioned Anduril Industries in the above post. So, given the poll, how many people on X would buy a ‘Made In America computer from Anduril’ if it was a fifth more pricey than a (presumably roughly equivalent spec) MacBook?
At the time of writing, with nearly 77,000 votes registered on X, almost two-thirds of respondents (63.5%) would purchase such an Anduril laptop.
The response was seemingly not quite as enthusiastic at the aforementioned Reindustrialize Summit, based on the clip below also posted on X (where Luckey is apparently speaking through a robot, yeah, don’t ask).
Here’s the moment where @PalmerLuckey interrupted @ashleevance at Reindustrialize to ask:”How many people in the audience would buy an American made computer if it was 20% more expensive?”The full clip is a great distillation of his thinking on the opportunity. https://t.co/aEvFdAxyBx pic.twitter.com/77qsvBJ52dJuly 20, 2025
However, commenters claim the rough count of raised hands was underestimated (as the audience was difficult to see due to the spotlights shining on the stage, which does make sense to be fair). According to the report, it was supposedly more than half in favor, which aligns more closely with Luckey’s poll result.
(Image credit: NATNN / Shutterstock)
Analysis: One laptop to rule US?
As Tom’s Hardware points out, there’s an important distinction here. Luckey talks about a laptop ‘made’ in the US, and that’s very different from a notebook that’s merely ‘assembled’ in America – with components like the key chips coming from elsewhere (like China).
Our sister site points to the definition of ‘Made in USA’ as put forward by the FTC, and that includes not just the assembly happening in a factory in the US, but that also “virtually all components of the product are made and sourced in the United States”.
It may be different in the future, but at this point, it seems unlikely that Anduril could source entirely US-made components for the potential laptop. In fact, it seems highly improbable that this could be realized with only a 20% price hike over what Apple charges. (What with the MacBook maker’s highly leveraged deals with the Asian supply chain, of course – not to mention any would-be rival would have to compete with the now impressively refined M-series silicon Apple has in its armory).
Hardware complications aside, the other bone of contention on X is what this hypothetical laptop would run by way of an operating system – Windows or Linux? Frankly, there are too many elements up in the air with this idea right now, and too many questions – although there is clearly some basic level of desire for such a product in the US.
Will that compel Luckey to reveal more about how he might achieve this feat? Or is this vague laptop concept just a bit of media hype? As mentioned, there are definitely more questions than answers, and it’ll certainly be interesting to see whether anything more will be forthcoming in terms of the latter.
What Luckey has more recently done (on X) is to fire back at ‘cynics’ criticizing the idea as “some cross between impossible and nakedly political opportunism driven by current US tariffs”, adding that: “Don’t miss the point. This problem transcends administrations. Myself and others have said so for years.”
