China Has Mass. Can America Catch Up?

About this episode

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