Are you feeling Luckey? How about ~ 4 hours worth of Luckey? ⬇️

If haven’t already invested four hours of your life listening to Anduril Industries founder Palmer Luckey on the Shawn Ryan Show – you’ll thank us later. One moment that caught our attention was Palmer’s view on the Chinese military and manufacturing prowess (YouTube has a useful timestamp to jump straight in). Some key points:

1️⃣ China has automated factories that can manufacture more cruise missiles in a week than the US can manufacture in a year. China is using this disparity in manufacturing strength to undermine the resolve of US allies in the region.

2️⃣ China has 350x more shipbuilding manufacturing capacity than the US. Civilian ships are manufactured to military standard to allow rapid scaling of maritime lift and logistics if required.

3️⃣ US outsourcing manufacturing to China is part of the problem. It has allowed China to build manufacturing capacity and capability at unparalleled scale.

4️⃣ Palmer estimates Anduril and other US tech leaders have a slim quality advantage – ranging from a few months to a few years over China. China might not lead in innovation, but their ability to copy and catch up cannot be underestimated (DeepSeek anyone?).

Palmer doesn’t pull punches – see below his assessment on the state of the US tech sector pre Covid in a LA Times feature on him from 2024:

“I felt that we lived in a unique period of U.S. history where we had allowed our technological innovation apparatus to be completely hijacked by a foreign power: China,” Luckey said. “Almost none of the major tech companies in the United States were willing to work with the DoD in a major way, because doing so would get them locked out of China, Chinese capital, Chinese markets, Chinese manufacturing.”

“Apple could not pivot away from China even in the event of World War III,” Luckey said. “So you get to this weird situation, I realized, where these people who are supposed to be the most powerful people in the country are actually handcuffed and prohibited from saying anything that they might believe.”

While we’re seeing improvement, we need to see a greater realisation from businesses in the West that ESG or DEI are not sustainable if they result in undermining of the Arsenal of Democracy and advantaging the Autocrats.

Add some Palmer Luckey to your listen list for the next long commute / gym / gardening session.

📷 via LA Times