The Ben & Marc Show: China Has Scale. Can America Catch Up?

Ben, Marc, and Erik Torenberg are joined by Brian Schimpf, Co-Founder & 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 0:27 Technical Superiority vs. Industrial Scale   3:59 The Decline of US Manufacturing   7:23 Challenges in Onshoring & Skilled Labor   13:27 Supply Chains & Rare Earths   15:34 Automation, Software, and Catching Up   17:15 Complexity of Modern Production   23:34 Strategic Policy & Industrial Planning   26:37 Regulatory Barriers & State vs. Federal Roles   35:27 Talent, Data Centers, and Financial Engineering   38:33 China’s Industrial Policy & US Response   46:07 US Manufacturing, National Security, and the China Challenge   52:00 Demographics, Long-Term Outlook, and Closing Thoughts     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   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, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any a16z funds. PLEASE SEE MORE HERE: https://a16z.com/disclosures/ Stay Updated: Find a16z on X Find a16z on LinkedIn Listen to the a16z Podcast on Spotify Listen to the a16z Podcast on Apple Podcasts Follow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg   Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.