Policymakers have spent years talking about rebuilding America’s industrial base, reshoring critical supply chains, strengthening defense production, and reducing U.S. dependence on China. But recognizing the need to build is not the same as having the ability to do it.

Erin Price-Wright, general partner on Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism practice, joins the AI Policy Brief to make the case that AI isn’t just a software story. It’s the defining factor in the sectors that determine whether the U.S. can build, power, and defend itself in the decades ahead.

She and Matt Perault discuss how AI can help make the math work for building in the U.S. again—from accelerating mine permitting and coordinating complex industrial projects to designing factories, lowering the cost of automation, and bringing robotics to more factory floors.

They also discuss where policy needs to catch up: the laws and regulations that make it too hard and slow to build new factories in the U.S. and defense procurement that still favors incumbents over startups.

Finally, they discuss how the debates over data centers and jobs will shape whether America’s reindustrialization effort succeeds.

The takeaway: if the U.S. gets the policy environment right, AI can strengthen the industrial base, help create new kinds of jobs, and give America a powerful competitive advantage.

Topics covered:

00:00: Intro

00:54: Erin’s work investing in AI for the physical world

01:47: Why AI and reindustrialization are converging now

03:07: Applying AI to mining and critical minerals

08:28: What Ukraine reveals about defense production

18:13: How startups are breaking into government markets

20:16: Bringing a factory mindset to critical sectors and complex systems

24:39: How robotics can expand factory automation

30:22: What still makes it too hard to build in the U.S.

32:49: Using AI to design better, cheaper manufactured goods

35:05: Why data centers matter for reindustrialization

39:46: How compute could help modernize the grid and lower costs for consumers

42:50: Why AI could create new industrial jobs

Resources:

Subscribe to the a16z AI Policy Brief: https://a16zpolicy.substack.com/

Follow Matt Perault: https://x.com/MattPerault

Follow Erin Price-Wright: https://x.com/espricewright

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