Palmer Luckey is hanging up his headset at Facebook.
The 24-year-old virtual-reality wunderkind is leaving six months after it was revealed he secretly funded a pro-Donald Trump internet campaign that produced anti-Hillary Clinton “magic memes” and “s–tposting” during the presidential election.
Luckey’s $10,000 to Nimble America — whose memes included a “Too big to jail” photo of Clinton — came as Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg landed in the middle of a storm over “fake news.”
Last month, meanwhile, Facebook got slapped with a $500 million judgment from a federal jury in Texas for stealing trade secrets from Zenimax, a virtual-reality company where Luckey’s co-founder at Oculus had previously worked.
“Palmer will be dearly missed,” Oculus said, declining to comment on whether he was fired. “Palmer’s legacy extends far beyond Oculus. His inventive spirit helped kickstart the modern VR revolution and build an industry. We’re thankful for everything he did for Oculus and VR, and we wish him all the best.”
Luckey was forced to apologize after the meme crisis, saying in a social media post that “recent news stories about me do not accurately represent my views.”
“I am deeply sorry that my actions are negatively impacting the perception of Oculus and its partners,” he wrote.
Luckey’s exit comes almost three years to the day after he sold Oculus to Facebook for $2 billion, bagging $730 million in the deal at age 21.
Since then, Oculus has been mired in product delays and turnover at the top, with reports of chaotic management and needlessly duplicated efforts as the firm faces competition with cheaper headsets from big rivals like Samsung and Google.
Last month, the pricey Oculus Rift headset released last September was pulled from the shelves at hundreds of Best Buy stores. Facebook insisted sluggish demand was a “seasonal” issue.