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 

0:54  The Myth of Technical Superiority

3:31  Erosion of US Manufacturing

6:50  Challenges in Rebuilding Industrial Capacity

8:31  The Skilled Labor Crisis

15:01  Automation and the Future of Manufacturing

17:57  Supply Chain Vulnerabilities

26:05  Regulatory and Policy Barriers

36:49  Financial Engineering vs. Industrial Policy

46:15  US vs. China: Strategic Competition

46:55  The Taiwan Scenario & War Gaming

52:55  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: 

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Find us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z

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