00:09:24 · S1, Palmer Luckey
[00:09:24] S1: Well, a few things. One, there's actually about 20 people that are on Project Meridian. You're right. [00:09:27] S0: We're the three chairs of the steering committee. Look, we're just getting started, right? It's a 120-day project. I think that it's still starting to come together. The whole project's being run by the MITRE Corporation, and they've done a lot of analysis of this type of thing before. Uh, what I've seen is that everyone is bringing a very different, unique perspective. Uh, like I, I think it's a matter of public record, so hopefully I'm not getting into trouble here, but like Rick Smith, CEO, founder of Axon is one of the other people there. And he's bringing a really unique perspective on things that can reduce collateral damage, reduce impact on civilian lives in warfare. You have other people who are coming from the computing industry, other people who are coming from the automotive industry. It's a lot of different perspectives. And again, we need to wait until this thing gets further along. But at least my personal opinion is I'm hoping that the report reflects the diversity of different perspectives that people are bringing to the table. I don't want this to just be a think tank report that says the same five things that everyone's known for 10 years. Look, we all know what the threat is in the Pacific. We all know what the threat is in the bio and the chem side. I would really like this to focus on the things that otherwise might not get attention, including things that might not get my attention.
00:10:40 · S2, S1, Palmer Luckey
[00:10:40] S2: We're live on Bloomberg Television and Radio. We're speaking to Palmer Luckey. I just asked about Project Meridian. I mean, the report's due in January, right? And I get that that's going to publish. You have to wait for that. But that was really interesting. Rather than just a think tank, I think people are asking, have you found evidence that there are things the Pentagon can do differently, should do differently, and how it conducts itself? Yeah. [00:11:03] S1: I think they can, but I don't think that's really what this is about. [00:11:06] S0: I think there's been a lot of talk about how this is– about how the Pentagon operates. [00:11:10] S1: The reality is, I mean, you can go watch the announcement.
00:11:10 · S1, Palmer Luckey
[00:11:10] S1: The reality is, I mean, you can go watch the announcement. [00:11:13] S0: It's about what the future of warfare looks like, particularly think about 2040, 2050, the things where you don't necessarily have a daily impetus to– really spend your time thinking about what it might look like and what steps you might take today if you're building towards that future. The things the Pentagon can change in terms of faster procurement, in terms of more lean development cycles, or things that I think everyone's learning from Ukraine, like the ability to very rapidly procure the things that work and then critically stop buying things when they're no longer working. That's maybe the most important thing we've seen out of Ukraine, giving units the decision to buy or stop buying things when they're no longer relevant, no longer working. Yes. I mean, that's a that's a really, really powerful development. But I think everyone knows that we need to do it. But it's the difference between knowing that you're fat and losing weight. You can know what you need to do, but sometimes you got to eat, eat less and move more. But it's so painful that it takes time sometimes to make it happen. [00:12:09] S1: And I think that's the problem of the deity. They all know what the problems are. [00:12:13] S0: And it's really painful to actually go about solving it.
00:12:13 · Palmer Luckey, S2, S1
[00:12:13] S0: And it's really painful to actually go about solving it. [00:12:18] S2: Palmer, we have two minutes here, which regrettably, but we're seven days from the midterms and think a lot of people look at, OK, if we get a blue wave, does that have a material impact on defense spending? Actually, lots of people see a tighter defense spending budget being good for like Anderil, nimble solutions, cost effective solutions. But just how are you preparing for that? [00:12:39] S0: Look, I've seen these arguments, this idea that when belts tighten, the more. [00:12:43] S1: Efficient companies are going to do better. [00:12:44] S0: When you have to decide which things to preserve and which things not to preserve, the things that are most relevant are probably going to win. I think that even with a blue wave, you're not necessarily– I'm going to see. [00:12:57] S1: A huge change in defense spending. Look, I could be wrong. I'm not a politician. I'm an engineer. [00:13:02] S0: So you're asking me to speculate outside of my area of expertise. But a lot of the Democrats– like I talk to Republicans and Democrats. The Democrats who are in control of the budget, Democrats who are in control of the defense budget. [00:13:14] S1: They understand that we're in a really unique period in time.
00:13:14 · S1, Palmer Luckey, S2
[00:13:14] S1: They understand that we're in a really unique period in time. [00:13:17] S0: They understand– that the world that we're in does need investment to replace some of these legacy systems and that we're facing a very near-term threat. And this is not just the U.S. that's recognizing this. I mean, Japan is now talking about how they need to engage with no taboos with the idea that they can amend their constitution so that Japan is able to host nuclear weapons. I mean... We are living in a world where everything is on the table. And so, look, the defense budget will go up. [00:13:44] S1: It'll go down. It'll go up. It'll go down. [00:13:47] S0: As of right now, I think most people on the red and the blue side agree that America needs to be investing in new technology. And I think I'm going to be fine no matter what happens. [00:13:59] S2: I just remind us very quickly for blue chip, the first shipments next year.
00:13:59 · S2, Palmer Luckey
[00:13:59] S2: I just remind us very quickly for blue chip, the first shipments next year. [00:14:05] S0: That's right. So we're going to be going into production next year. We're going to have more to announce next year. I don't have information on the exact pricing, the exact timelines. If you've been paying attention, if you've been paying any attention at all, you'll know this is maybe the hardest time in history to predict the pricing and delivery timelines of computer chips because of this AI boom. Right. It's not that I don't want to tell you the date. It's that I can't give a date or an exact price that I'm confident that I'm going to be able to hit when I'm delivering next year. And so we'll have more to say next year. We're going to be in production next year. We're already actually in early prototype production right now. And we're going to be building these at Arsenal One and in a variety of other places with about two dozen other American companies and getting them out to you.