Why a $30.5B Defense CEO and Reddit’s Co-Founder Are Obsessed With 1999—and Why That Matters for AI

Two tech moguls bicker over the soul of innovation—while an AI CEO quietly admits to loving the past. Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, and Palmer Luckey, CEO of Anduril, have publicly clashed over the role of nostalgia in modern tech.

Ohanian argues that retro aesthetics are more than sentimentality: "It’s not just about nostalgia for the old; it’s about the fact that it’s just objectively better." Luckey, whose defense company is valued at $30.5 billion, offers a vaguer endorsement of AI: "I support AI and feel it is changing workflows for the better."

Their debate crystallizes a broader tension in tech culture. ModRetro’s Chromatic—a $199 device for playing 1990s-era cartridges—has sold out multiple batches, tapping into a market where young users seek physical media as an antidote to digital overload.

Vendors claim such devices offer "10x" the satisfaction of cloud-based tools, but studies show only a 20% preference in user engagement. This gap between idealized past and modern tech mirrors Luckey’s own position: his AI investments remain abstract, while his defense contracts remain unmentioned in public forums.

The Chromatic’s success reflects a deeper shift. As one industry analyst notes: "Young people are overwhelmed and oversaturated by the internet, leading to a revival of vinyl, cassettes, and low-tech retro devices." This "nostalgia-as-strategy" contrasts sharply with AI-native tools that promise efficiency but deliver little tangible improvement in user experience.

Luckey’s Anduril, valued at $30.5 billion, operates in a domain where AI is a tool of war, not a consumer companion. Yet neither he nor Ohanian has offered concrete examples of how AI intersects with their retro-tech obsessions.