Palmer Luckey: Oculus VR co-founder leaves Facebook after secretly funding Trump-supporting memes

'His inventive spirit helped kickstart the modern VR revolution and helped build an industry'

Palmer Luckey sold Oculus to Facebook for $2 billion in 2014

(REUTERS/Robert Galbraith)

Facebook has announced that Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey is leaving the company.

The 24-year-old has kept an extremely low profile after it emerged last year that he had been funding a secret meme factory called Nimble America, to support Donald Trump’s presidential bid.

The group was revealed on Reddit’s “The Donald” forum last September, alongside posts from a user called NimbleRichMan.

“Let’s generate some success of our own,” NimbleRichMan wrote. “Make America great again with your meme magic, centipedes of The Donald!”

Mr Luckey’s most recent tweet was published on 24 September last year, and links to a Facebook update posted after the reports emerged.

“I am deeply sorry that my actions are negatively impacting the perception of Oculus and its partners,” he wrote.

“I contributed $10,000 to Nimble America because I thought the organization had fresh ideas on how to communicate with young voters through the use of several billboards.”

He added that he did not write the ‘NimbleRichMan’ posts on Reddit, and is not an employee of Nimble America.

“Palmer will be dearly missed,” Facebook told UploadVR. “Palmer’s legacy extends far beyond Oculus.

“His inventive spirit helped kickstart the modern VR revolution and helped build an industry. We’re thankful for everything he did for Oculus and VR, and we wish him all the best.”