Anduril CEO: China Has Scale. Can America Catch Up?

Ben, Marc, and Erik Torenberg are joined by Brian Schimpf, Cofounder & CEO of Anduril, and Chris Power, Founder & CEO of Hadrian. Together, they dig into America’s defense production gap: why the U.S. can out-innovate but not out-produce, and what it will take to turn that around. They discuss why U.S. war games show we run out of munitions in a week, the myth of “exquisite-only” systems, how to rebuild industrial capacity with software-led automation, financing factories like data centers, and what it takes to create real deterrence in a Taiwan scenario. Timecodes: 0:00 Introduction 0:34 The Myth of Technical Superiority 3:12 Erosion of US Manufacturing 6:39 Challenges in Rebuilding Industrial Capacity 8:45 The Skilled Labor Crisis 10:37 Factory-First Strategy and Supply Chain Bottlenecks 15:01 Automation and the Future of Manufacturing 17:11 Supply Chain Vulnerabilities 20:52 Why Wartime Ramp-Ups Don’t Work Today 22:49 Rebuilding Supply Chain and Policy Fixes 26:05 Regulatory and Policy Barriers 30:09 State vs. Federal: The Regulatory Tug-of-War 33:12 Skilled Labor and Mobility 34:53 CapEx, Contracts, and Speed 36:49 Financial Engineering vs. Industrial Policy 37:59 Made in China vs. Made in America 41:27 Banks, Risk, and Smarter Subsidy Design 45:57 US vs. China: The Taiwan Scenario 52:07 Demographics, Economics, and CCP Strategy Resources: Find Chris on X: https://x.com/chris_power Find Brian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bschimpf/ Marc on X: https://x.com/pmarca Marc’s Substack: https://pmarca.substack.com/ Ben on X: https://x.com/bhorowitz Listen to Us! Apple: https://bit.ly/3SdsfNt Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3SclPOr Stay Updated: Find us on X:https://x.com/a16z Find us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z The views expressed here are those of the individual personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. This content is provided for informational purposes only, an