1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,237 Joining us now in an exclusive interview is Palmer Lucky, Anduril founder. 2 00:00:04,320 --> 00:00:05,877 Palmer, it's great to have you back on. 3 00:00:05,960 --> 00:00:09,317 It's Peter glad to be back on. So, I want to start right there with these 4 00:00:09,400 --> 00:00:11,677 milestones and specifically, we got to 5 00:00:11,760 --> 00:00:14,837 work on this name. YF-Q-44A, 6 00:00:14,920 --> 00:00:19,077 which is your collaborative combat aircraft for the Air Force, just had a 7 00:00:19,160 --> 00:00:22,317 maiden flight on Halloween. How significant is this milestone and 8 00:00:22,400 --> 00:00:25,797 perhaps even more importantly, what does this mean in terms of production now? 9 00:00:25,880 --> 00:00:29,557 Well, it's a huge milestone for us because this is, you know, an autonomous 10 00:00:29,640 --> 00:00:33,237 fighter. You push a button to tell it to take off and it goes off and it performs 11 00:00:33,320 --> 00:00:35,597 the rest of the mission. And that's exactly what we just demonstrated at the 12 00:00:35,680 --> 00:00:38,957 first flight. You don't have someone who's flying this thing from a remote 13 00:00:39,040 --> 00:00:43,517 control. You don't have a person telling you what to do. It It does what you told 14 00:00:43,600 --> 00:00:47,437 it to do ahead of time and it just goes down and executes on that mission. 15 00:00:47,520 --> 00:00:50,957 In terms of the name, you know, the so Y is a designation for a production 16 00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:55,357 representative prototype. F is for fighter. Q is for unmanned. 44 is a 17 00:00:55,440 --> 00:00:58,997 designation and A is for alpha. So, the actual name of the aircraft when it's in 18 00:00:59,080 --> 00:01:02,157 full production is going to just be the F-Q-44. 19 00:01:02,240 --> 00:01:05,757 But for this initial demonstrator, you're right, it's the YF-Q-44A. 20 00:01:05,840 --> 00:01:08,597 Yeah. And you're also expanding internationally. You just opened this 21 00:01:08,680 --> 00:01:12,317 factory in Australia. We're seeing defense spending grow not just here 22 00:01:12,400 --> 00:01:14,357 stateside, but globally as well. How 23 00:01:14,440 --> 00:01:16,197 does this position you? 24 00:01:16,280 --> 00:01:20,197 Well, the thing that the the YF-Q-44A 25 00:01:20,280 --> 00:01:24,637 and the Ghost Shark have in common is that we've built these factories that 26 00:01:24,720 --> 00:01:28,317 are able to manufacture both of them at very large scale using largely 27 00:01:28,400 --> 00:01:29,877 autonomous manufacturing processes. 28 00:01:29,960 --> 00:01:33,197 They're very simple to set up. We're designing products that can be made at 29 00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:35,917 scale at a price that is much cheaper 30 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:39,357 than a lot of these legacy programs. And 31 00:01:39,440 --> 00:01:42,317 in both cases, we've gone from initial 32 00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:46,037 concept to production in extremely very 33 00:01:46,120 --> 00:01:50,397 very short period of time. Like the the F-Q-44, we went from selection to first 34 00:01:50,480 --> 00:01:53,037 flight in 556 days. That's the fastest a 35 00:01:53,120 --> 00:01:55,757 fighter program has moved in decades. 36 00:01:55,840 --> 00:01:59,717 With the Ghost Shark in Australia, we've in less than 3 years gone from the 37 00:01:59,800 --> 00:02:02,717 initial contract to real production 38 00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:07,197 robotic submarines coming off of our line in Sydney. That is extraordinarily 39 00:02:07,280 --> 00:02:11,317 fast and I hope that the rest of the industry can try to take notes from us 40 00:02:11,400 --> 00:02:14,837 and do things in a similar way. So, along those lines, and I say this 41 00:02:14,920 --> 00:02:17,677 knowing there's an information article just a couple weeks ago about the cash 42 00:02:17,760 --> 00:02:21,157 burn at Anduril. As you do stand up all of these factories and you do scale all 43 00:02:21,240 --> 00:02:25,837 of this production, can you build and deliver to the military what it needs 44 00:02:25,920 --> 00:02:28,957 when it needs it? Absolutely. And one of the reasons we 45 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:32,277 want to spend our own money is because it allows us to move so much faster than 46 00:02:32,360 --> 00:02:35,597 relying on the government to pay for everything. I mean, one good example of 47 00:02:35,680 --> 00:02:38,117 that is the government shutdown right now. I'm sure they're going to work it 48 00:02:38,200 --> 00:02:40,837 out in the long run, but right now, Anduril is still moving through full 49 00:02:40,920 --> 00:02:44,077 throttle. All our test sites are operational. All of our programs are 50 00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:47,237 running. All of our products are still moving forward. And it's the same thing 51 00:02:47,320 --> 00:02:50,757 with our factories. I mean, the F-Q-44 factory, which is going to start turning 52 00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:54,077 out Furries next year, production Furries. 53 00:02:54,160 --> 00:02:56,437 We We started building that before we 54 00:02:56,520 --> 00:03:01,957 even won the contract because we were so confident that if we won the contract, 55 00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:03,437 we were desperately going to need it. 56 00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:06,117 And if we didn't win it, we'd be able to use it for making our other products. 57 00:03:06,200 --> 00:03:10,357 And so, look, we're we're burning a lot of money, but it is being put to very 58 00:03:10,440 --> 00:03:13,637 very efficient use. We're not burning money on nap pods. We're not burning 59 00:03:13,720 --> 00:03:16,637 money on on you know, having parties. We're burning 60 00:03:16,720 --> 00:03:20,117 money building factories that the United States desperately needs for its 61 00:03:20,200 --> 00:03:22,317 national security. All right. So, if we're So, if we're talking about 62 00:03:22,400 --> 00:03:25,477 spending though, we had Palantir down today despite another really strong 63 00:03:25,560 --> 00:03:28,317 quarter. There's concerns. There's debate at 64 00:03:28,400 --> 00:03:32,757 least among investors that an a bubble is potentially 65 00:03:32,840 --> 00:03:36,517 inflating across this AI ecosystem with all the money that is being spent. How 66 00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:40,157 do you see it? Well, Anduril is interesting because 67 00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:44,397 we're the AI company that kind of preempted a lot of this AI hype. The The 68 00:03:44,480 --> 00:03:48,837 name Anduril Industries, the acronym acronym is AI. And 8 years ago, we 69 00:03:48,920 --> 00:03:52,317 couldn't even talk about that because AI was seen as this technology of the 70 00:03:52,400 --> 00:03:55,477 future, never something that was actually going to work. Now, AI is the 71 00:03:55,560 --> 00:03:57,757 hottest thing ever. Look, AI powers all 72 00:03:57,840 --> 00:04:02,717 of our systems. The F-Q-44 has a Lattice brain. The Ghost Shark has a Lattice 73 00:04:02,800 --> 00:04:06,637 brain. All of our systems are running on our Lattice AI brains that powers all of 74 00:04:06,720 --> 00:04:10,197 our stuff. But I think that we're very different from a lot of these other AI 75 00:04:10,280 --> 00:04:12,837 companies in that AI is not the product. 76 00:04:12,920 --> 00:04:16,517 It's just the thing that makes the product work. I'm not selling AI 77 00:04:16,600 --> 00:04:18,637 software. I'm not selling an AI brain. 78 00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:22,277 I'm selling fighter jets. I'm selling submarines. I'm selling missiles. I'm 79 00:04:22,360 --> 00:04:26,157 selling heads-up displays. I'm selling rifles. I'm selling force fields that 80 00:04:26,240 --> 00:04:29,397 happen to be powered by AI. So, I think it's just it's a very very different 81 00:04:29,480 --> 00:04:33,997 category than a lot of these other AI companies. And there's a world where 82 00:04:34,080 --> 00:04:36,917 where where this is a bubble. There's a world where it's not. I got to admit, 83 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:40,037 I'm not really a finance person. I'm a techno head. I type on the computer 84 00:04:40,120 --> 00:04:44,197 really really well. It's your job to tell us if it's a bubble or not. Okay. 85 00:04:44,280 --> 00:04:46,997 So, let's shift gears here a little bit because just a couple weeks ago, 86 00:04:47,080 --> 00:04:48,957 conditional approval from the Office of 87 00:04:49,040 --> 00:04:50,997 the Comptroller of the Currency for 88 00:04:51,080 --> 00:04:54,397 another startup. So, So, media reports 89 00:04:54,480 --> 00:04:57,437 tell me Aerobor. Tell me about it. 90 00:04:57,520 --> 00:05:00,637 I think it's a little too early to talk much about it, but as you know, I've 91 00:05:00,720 --> 00:05:02,717 been working on a side project to build 92 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:07,677 a bank that is extremely reliable, not really to build a bank that startups 93 00:05:07,760 --> 00:05:11,677 like to build a to build a bank that is the 94 00:05:11,760 --> 00:05:15,597 type of bank that defense startups need, that technology startups need. A lot of 95 00:05:15,680 --> 00:05:18,437 the people You know, when when when Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, it almost 96 00:05:18,520 --> 00:05:21,077 took a lot of companies with them. 97 00:05:21,160 --> 00:05:25,917 The existing market is not really doing what needs to be done. And it's a little 98 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:28,557 too early for me to be out there shilling. We have a We have a 99 00:05:28,640 --> 00:05:32,997 preliminary conditional approval. So, I I think right now, I'm funding all of 100 00:05:33,080 --> 00:05:36,797 the operations myself. I think at some point in the future, there'll be 101 00:05:36,880 --> 00:05:40,917 there'll be more to say. But the bottom line is, the US used to have banks that 102 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:44,517 were in the business of holding your money and helping companies succeed. And 103 00:05:44,600 --> 00:05:48,037 too many of them have forgotten that their job is not to be cute and 104 00:05:48,120 --> 00:05:54,600 financialize everything to the nth degree even at the expense of their customers.