The Ben & Marc Show: China Has Scale. Can America Catch Up?
The a16z Show
Designing flexible, low-capex factories
Brian advocates high-mix, low-volume flexible factories using software, tooling reduction, and automation to regain capacity.
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
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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/
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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.
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