How AI Is Changing Warfare with Brian Schimpf, CEO of Anduril

a16z Podcast

a16z

Science, Innovation, Business, Entrepreneurship, Culture, Disruption, Software Eating The World, Technology

4.4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 January 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How is AI reshaping modern warfare? Speaking with a16z Growth General Partner David George, Anduril cofounder and CEO Brian Schimpf discusses how AI helps humans make better strategic decisions by sorting through the enormous amount of data collected from modern battlefields. Schimpf also discusses navigating the US government’s complex procurement processes, using commercial technologies to kickstart their own product development, and the growing opportunities for startups in defense. Throughout, Brian offers a deep dive into the intersection of technology, geopolitics, and the future of defense. This episode is part of our AI Revolution series, where we explore how industry leaders are leveraging generative AI to steer innovation and navigate the next major platform shift. Discover more insights and content from the AI Revolution series at a16z.com/AIRevolution.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The American defense industry is the largest in the world at nearly $1 trillion, accounting for about 40% of military spending around the world, and also arguably impacting every person on Earth.
0:15.5	Now, this sector has also face shifted throughout the decades, including the consolidation of primes, shrinking from
0:21.8	over 50 to less than 10 large crimes receiving a majority of defense dollars. Those are companies
0:28.0	like Lockheed, Raytheon, or Boeing. But there are some new companies in town, trying to disrupt
0:33.9	how defense is done through new hardware and software.
0:43.6	One of those is Anderil, a company that just announced Arsenal One, a billion-dollar factory in Columbus, Ohio, expected to create 4,000 jobs in the region.
0:48.5	Now, in today's episode, Anderil co-founder and CEO, Brian Schimph, sits down with A16C growth general partner, David George.
0:57.3	Together, they discuss how Andro got its first product off the ground,
1:00.9	competing with some of the largest companies in the world in navigating the U.S.
1:05.1	government's complex procurement processes.
1:08.1	They also discuss how AI changes the modern battlefield.
1:11.6	Being able to pull out that signal from this overwhelming amount of information that exists.
1:16.6	Plus, what most people get wrong about these technologies.
1:20.6	It is unethical to not apply these technologies to these problems.
1:24.6	And how we shape up to the competition.
1:31.5	They are running hundreds of tests a year of hypersonic weapons.
1:33.1	The U.S. is running like four.
1:37.9	Now, if you do like this episode, it comes straight from our AI Revolution series.
1:40.9	So if you miss previous episodes of that series,
1:45.6	with guests like AMD CEO Lisa Sue, Anthropic co-founder Dario Amadeh,
1:52.2	or the founders of companies like Databricks, Waymo, Figma, and more, head on over to A16C.com slash AI Revolution.
1:54.6	All right, let's get started.
	...

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