00:00:02 · Palmer Luckey, S1, S2
[00:00:02] S0: Bloomberg Audio Studios. [00:00:04] S1: Podcasts. Radio. [00:00:06] S0: News. [00:00:07] S2: Defense tech startup Anduril is joining forces with chipmaker Qualcomm on Blue Chip, an effort to rebuild an American computer supply chain and reduce dependence on overseas manufacturing. The first product will be a laptop designed, assembled in the U.S. with circuit board assembly planned at Anduril's Arsenal One factory in Ohio. Joining us now for an exclusive conversation, Anderil founder, Palmer Lucky. This is something that you've talked about, the problem you've talked about. But I think a good place to start, Palmer, is why? Why Anderil's getting into computers? [00:00:41] S0: Well, we're getting into computers because America invented the computer industry. We perfected it and then we shipped it overseas. And that might make sense from an economic perspective. But think about the things that I'm working on. Think about the things that the military is working on. Think about critical industries like medical, hospitals, power plants. There's a lot of people who are building stuff running on Chinese made computers. And I think it's crazy to have an entire country depend entirely on its largest strategic adversary for its most critical economic powerhouses. And so The Android didn't actually set out originally to build American computers because we wanted to. [00:01:15] S1: We tried to get other people to do it.
00:01:15 · S1, Palmer Luckey, S2
[00:01:15] S1: We tried to get other people to do it. [00:01:17] S0: We tried to get them to invest in this because I can't be in the business of selling autonomous weapons that are controlled by Chinese equipment. And we weren't able to make it happen. So we decided this is something that we were going to invest in. We're going to bring silicon back to the valley. We're going to work with the best companies in the United States to build a computer that's not just designed here. Not just even assembled here, but actually made in the United States. Everything from the chips to the glass to the metals to the batteries to the plastics. [00:01:44] S1: Everything. [00:01:46] S2: I have a lot of questions on the component level and how this works with the supply chain. But you've raised some interesting points, which is in the first instance, who Blue Chip is actually for. Like this is a rug, what we'd call a rugged computer, right? Directed at the military, the public sector, first responders, emergency services, or your ambition is broader than that. [00:02:08] S1: Look, my ambition is broader.
00:02:08 · S1, Palmer Luckey, S2
[00:02:08] S1: Look, my ambition is broader. [00:02:09] S0: Where we're starting is with these military applications, because those are the most challenging requirements in terms of the heat requirements, the shock requirements, the weatherproofing required, the security required. If I can build a computer that meets the military's needs, it's going to be more than enough to meet everyone else's needs. And so I'd say right now we're focused on government and then critical industry. So think about defense companies that are handling classified data. energy companies that are building grid-critical systems that need to really understand every piece of hardware and not have back doors planted into their machines by a foreign adversary. America has understood the importance of domestic manufacturing in other areas for a very long time. I was propagandized at a young age. My dad was a car salesman selling Buick, Pontiac, GMC, and Hummer. And if we didn't have American automotive, you can guess where we would be in the automotive space. [00:03:04] S1: Okay. [00:03:04] S2: So there's the product, but in this first phase of blue chip, you have to go about rebuilding a supply chain, the displays, uh, you know, uh, Qualcomm is going to come with the CPU, GPU and, and NPU. But, but I mean, how do you do that? [00:03:19] S1: Where do you start? It's really tough. We've been working on this for years.
00:03:19 · S1, Palmer Luckey, S2
[00:03:19] S1: Where do you start? It's really tough. We've been working on this for years. [00:03:24] S0: There's so many things where we've sent them overseas and it's not just about the chips. Qualcomm has announced that they're going to be making the chips in Arizona and The thing is the chips aren't enough. One of the problems with the US subsidies and investments in semiconductors is at the end of the day, we don't have any ability to package them and then turn them, transform them into useful products. So from a certain point of view, American semiconductor subsidies have really just been a subsidy of Chinese made laptops, of Chinese made computers, because that's where they go to actually get turned into products. We want to make sure that America is capturing that entire value chain here. And it's really tough. We're working with suppliers who either have never been in the computer industry or they haven't been in the computer industry for about 20 years now in the last U.S. plant shutdown after the elite sold us out and sent everything overseas. [00:04:13] S2: We are live on Bloomberg Television and on Bloomberg Radio speaking to Parmalaki, the founder of Anduril, about Blue Chip, which is an initiative to have a 100% U.S. manufactured computer, a laptop, and I think future. [00:04:27] S1: Products may come in the future. Starting with a laptop. We'll get to the rest later.
00:04:27 · S1, S2, Palmer Luckey
[00:04:27] S1: Products may come in the future. Starting with a laptop. We'll get to the rest later. [00:04:30] S2: Starting with a laptop. I mean, you know, the question that you're raising is, is it realistic? Is it even possible to reduce dependence on China 100% at the component level and the raw materials level? [00:04:44] S0: Look, I think that I have a more realistic view than this than almost anybody. One of the problems with all these analysts that are telling you that it's going to cost $ 37, 000 to build an American iPhone or $ 100, 000 to buy an American computer. They're trying to prop up a status quo that the mega corporations want to keep going. They want to outsource everything. They want to hire cheaper, non-American laborers. and they are willing to say and do anything to convince you that it can't be fixed, that it can't come back, that America is this helpless, neutered, post-relevant empire, and it is just not the case. [00:05:17] S1: How do I know that? [00:05:18] S0: Because I have to make stuff in America every day, because I work in the defense industry. The stuff that Anduril makes every day is not actually that different from a computer. [00:05:27] S1: My drones are basically computers. [00:05:30] S0: They have memory, a GPU, a CPU, sensors, batteries, a rugged integration. The only difference between an Anduril attack drone and a laptop is a keyboard and a screen. [00:05:42] S1: And that is not.
00:05:42 · S1, Palmer Luckey, S2
[00:05:42] S1: And that is not. [00:05:42] S0: That hard to figure out, especially for a guy like me who started Oculus and comes from the consumer electronics space. And so we're not going to let people lie about what America can and can't do anymore. [00:05:53] S2: We're just going to do it. And that was my question. What is Anduril's advantage here in doing this? And I think you've outlined it. You also said you tried. [00:06:01] S0: One of the few companies that actually has had to get good at this. Look, I'm personally sanctioned by the Chinese Communist Party. I'm a separatist terrorist, according to them. Anduril is sanctioned, too. So we've had to develop a. We've had to develop a life independent of China in a way that most American companies say they cannot, but in reality just don't want to do. [00:06:23] S1: And so we're the right company to be able to do this. [00:06:25] S0: And I think that our experience over the last 10 years, learning how to build these advanced systems without a reliance on our foreign adversaries, that's why I'm so confident that this is going to be, maybe not a piece of cake, but there's a reason I know this is doable. [00:06:43] S2: A question I got for you from the analysts, for what it's worth, is who are you going to convince to manufacture displays in the US? [00:06:51] S1: That is a great question.