October 10, 2025 • 7 mins
Anduril CEO Brian Schimpf discusses the geopolitical tensions between the United States and China and its effect on Anduril and the defense industry. Schimpf spoke with Bloomberg's Ed Ludlow and Caroline Hyde.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news, and.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
We kick things off with Brian Shimp, CEO of ANDERIL,
as the first of many conversations. Brian, we're grateful to
be here at ANDERILL. There has been a lot of
hype around the company, a deep focus on what it
is doing, how it is growing, and so as a
place to start, which you just bring us up to
(00:28):
speed on where ANDERI is today operationally, revenue, the business
it is doing with the US government and Western allies.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Absolutely well, thank you for having me on. Really excited
to have you here. The Andral has been around about
eight years, but we've grown incredibly in that time. I
think this year we're going to be over sixty five
hundred employees. We've got something like about half of them
here in Costa Mesa. We're looking to basically double revenue
this year. So we're about a billion last year, we'll
go over two billion this year. And we're ramping production
(00:58):
about four hundred percent. So a lot of the mix
is switching from one of the earlier stage things we
were doing, which were you know, kind of experimental, really
learning what the technology could do, how to integrate it
with war fighters. This year we're really moving into this
mode of really producing.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Brian, forgive me. We've actually got some breaking news that's
just crossed the Bloomberg terminal. President Trump is saying that
he was due to meet China's President g in two
weeks time. He's saying now that he sees no reason
to do so. The team are going to put some
of the headlines up on the screen. But Caro, a
significant piece of news because part of what we wanted
(01:34):
to discuss today was China, the President saying that he's
calculating increased tariffs on Chinese products.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
This is a dining up of GPN attentions.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Brian, bear with us. We are now seeing this quite
sharp market reaction. Clearly the S and P five hundred
is changed direction here because I think, well, you know,
jumping Carra. I think part of the point is that
we were headed in a different direction, and.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
This brings so many questions around what the TikTok relationship
had been, and much of that had been sort of
almost this lynchpin in relationships between President She and indeed
President Trump, but then been this ongoing narrative about how
we could rectify and rehabilitate the relationship there've been calls
from China perhaps wanting yet further relief from some of
the higher tarists.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
That they've been Sorry, I've just pulled up the true
social posts, and that's where the President's communicated and he's
basically saying that China is becoming very hostile. Let's get
back to the conversation.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Well, your take, Brian, because in many ways, andrel and
defense tech as a whole is about the story of
national security, and it is about US versus China. Is
that where you see the key risks.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
That is one of the key conflicts. But if you
look worldwide, I mean you've got land wars in Europe,
You've got you know, the Red Seas still basically denied.
Iran doesn't look like it's going to slow down anytime soon. China,
beyond just the tensions with US, has been constantly aggravating
with the Philippines, you know, constantly fighting over different islands
(02:58):
and things like that. So you're in this period of
just massive geopolitical instability, and China is obviously the focus.
But I mean they've had a very strategic view to this, right,
Like they've blocked so they've pump put a significant export
controls on magnets for high end but rare US.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
For example, we understand the breaking newser today as well
as China's making harder and harder for rare earth to
be exploited not just the US.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
But to Europe.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Yeah, and I think this is part of a long
term strategic plan they have had, right, they have used
industrial policy beyond just military power to construct a world
where they have a lot of leverage over the US
and their allies. They drive dependence on these things and
it's a very sophisticated strategy that they're playing. Yes, I
think this is something that Trump recognizes. I think he
(03:44):
is a very good negotiator. If he's saying these things,
he understands what that means and how he is using
that to position for maximum advantage. And so I think
it's going to be a long run conflict with China,
and that's something we've just got to be prepared for.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Brian, Thank you for rolling with this. The news is
breaking as we go to air, the markets reacting. One
of the things that we've just shown on the street
is the semiconductor index. Yeah. One reason why it's critically
important to talk to you and Reill is your efforts
to re ensure the manufacturing base in this country in Ohio.
But in research for being here today, Caroline and I
(04:19):
looked a lot at the supply chain for your industry.
Why everything from why Harness through to GPUs that go
on board a lot of the weapons behind us. Could
you just expand on that a little bit, you know
why arsenal one is so critical in that sense in
that context absolutely so.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
You know, when you look at defenses one of those
areas where national security is paramount, pulling these technologies onto
US and ally and manufacturing is absolutely key. And the
strategy we've taken with this is there is a lot
of industrial capacity in the US. There is the ability
to take advantage of largely commercial industry that can manufacture
these things. But when you start stepping back, there's things
(04:59):
that defense alone can solve. Right These are things like
you know, the rare earth magnets, germanium supply, these are
things that China has strategically tried to stranglehold. And this
will require beyond just stating as a policy that you
have to sources of America. The sources are very very limited.
This is areas where I've been really encouraged by what
the Trump administration has done around trying to reignite this
(05:21):
idea of how do you do smart industrial policy? What
is it going to look like in the US. It's
going to look different. It's going to be a combination
of tariffs, it's going to be a combination of things
they did with like MP materials guaranteed off take. There's
just this very different strategy that needs to be taken
to really solve this on a country level scale. And
for US, we can be early adopters, right like, we
can take advantage of all those things, and we're building
(05:42):
out a mass of manufacturing complex in Ohio to be
able to take advantage of all of those suppliers in
the US and build a lot of things here on shore.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Okay, so the breaking news is that the president has
taken true social and he is saying that it looks
like he now won't meet with China's she and things
are changing. We will discuss that for the next hour
while we have you. Anderil has been in the headlines
partly because of the insate website of all kinds of
investors to be involved. You did a secondary or a
(06:10):
tender for your employees would you talk about the focus
you have right now in talent and that mechanism to
keep people basically.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
No, absolutely, So the defense world has shifted a lot, right, Like,
a lot of the people in traditional defense industry are
amazing at things like aircraft design and hypersonics and things
along those lines. But the next generation of this really
looks different. It really looks about software. It looks how
you adopt commercial manufacturing approaches. It's how you mass manufacture
(06:38):
these capabilities. It's a very different focus. We're moving out
of an era where we need to make relatively few,
a very very expensive, high end things. We're moving into
an era where it's much more about how do we
have things at scale that are smarter, that are more autonomous.
And so this ability to attract the best talent into
this really is coming from tech companies. It's coming from universities.
It's people who otherwise would have at you know, kind
(07:01):
of all the tech company brand names. You would know,
part of that's compensation and liquidity and all the startup economics,
but honestly a lot more of it is just do
they get to work on exciting problems with people they like,
on things that really matter? Right, and I think we
present this opportunity to be very clear in our purpose
and our mission, something that's going to be impactful, and
they get to work on just amazing cutting edge things,
(07:23):
right like making autonomous fighter jets and you know, these
reusable miss There's just an absolutely crazy thing to work
on if you're a young engineer. And that's what we've
really found is the formula to get the best and brightest.
Here is an exciting opportunity to actually contribute, give back
and build something incredible.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Ron What a joy to have you sat with us
rolling within Broiking News and be surrounded by all of
this gear that you are driving innovation on branch and
appreciate your CEO of Andreill
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news, and.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
We kick things off with Brian Shimp, CEO of ANDERIL,
as the first of many conversations. Brian, we're grateful to
be here at ANDERILL. There has been a lot of
hype around the company, a deep focus on what it
is doing, how it is growing, and so as a
place to start, which you just bring us up to
(00:28):
speed on where ANDERI is today operationally, revenue, the business
it is doing with the US government and Western allies.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Absolutely well, thank you for having me on. Really excited
to have you here. The Andral has been around about
eight years, but we've grown incredibly in that time. I
think this year we're going to be over sixty five
hundred employees. We've got something like about half of them
here in Costa Mesa. We're looking to basically double revenue
this year. So we're about a billion last year, we'll
go over two billion this year. And we're ramping production
(00:58):
about four hundred percent. So a lot of the mix
is switching from one of the earlier stage things we
were doing, which were you know, kind of experimental, really
learning what the technology could do, how to integrate it
with war fighters. This year we're really moving into this
mode of really producing.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Brian, forgive me. We've actually got some breaking news that's
just crossed the Bloomberg terminal. President Trump is saying that
he was due to meet China's President g in two
weeks time. He's saying now that he sees no reason
to do so. The team are going to put some
of the headlines up on the screen. But Caro, a
significant piece of news because part of what we wanted
(01:34):
to discuss today was China, the President saying that he's
calculating increased tariffs on Chinese products.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
This is a dining up of GPN attentions.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Brian, bear with us. We are now seeing this quite
sharp market reaction. Clearly the S and P five hundred
is changed direction here because I think, well, you know,
jumping Carra. I think part of the point is that
we were headed in a different direction, and.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
This brings so many questions around what the TikTok relationship
had been, and much of that had been sort of
almost this lynchpin in relationships between President She and indeed
President Trump, but then been this ongoing narrative about how
we could rectify and rehabilitate the relationship there've been calls
from China perhaps wanting yet further relief from some of
the higher tarists.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
That they've been Sorry, I've just pulled up the true
social posts, and that's where the President's communicated and he's
basically saying that China is becoming very hostile. Let's get
back to the conversation.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Well, your take, Brian, because in many ways, andrel and
defense tech as a whole is about the story of
national security, and it is about US versus China. Is
that where you see the key risks.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
That is one of the key conflicts. But if you
look worldwide, I mean you've got land wars in Europe,
You've got you know, the Red Seas still basically denied.
Iran doesn't look like it's going to slow down anytime soon. China,
beyond just the tensions with US, has been constantly aggravating
with the Philippines, you know, constantly fighting over different islands
(02:58):
and things like that. So you're in this period of
just massive geopolitical instability, and China is obviously the focus.
But I mean they've had a very strategic view to this, right,
Like they've blocked so they've pump put a significant export
controls on magnets for high end but rare US.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
For example, we understand the breaking newser today as well
as China's making harder and harder for rare earth to
be exploited not just the US.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
But to Europe.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Yeah, and I think this is part of a long
term strategic plan they have had, right, they have used
industrial policy beyond just military power to construct a world
where they have a lot of leverage over the US
and their allies. They drive dependence on these things and
it's a very sophisticated strategy that they're playing. Yes, I
think this is something that Trump recognizes. I think he
(03:44):
is a very good negotiator. If he's saying these things,
he understands what that means and how he is using
that to position for maximum advantage. And so I think
it's going to be a long run conflict with China,
and that's something we've just got to be prepared for.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Brian, Thank you for rolling with this. The news is
breaking as we go to air, the markets reacting. One
of the things that we've just shown on the street
is the semiconductor index. Yeah. One reason why it's critically
important to talk to you and Reill is your efforts
to re ensure the manufacturing base in this country in Ohio.
But in research for being here today, Caroline and I
(04:19):
looked a lot at the supply chain for your industry.
Why everything from why Harness through to GPUs that go
on board a lot of the weapons behind us. Could
you just expand on that a little bit, you know
why arsenal one is so critical in that sense in
that context absolutely so.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
You know, when you look at defenses one of those
areas where national security is paramount, pulling these technologies onto
US and ally and manufacturing is absolutely key. And the
strategy we've taken with this is there is a lot
of industrial capacity in the US. There is the ability
to take advantage of largely commercial industry that can manufacture
these things. But when you start stepping back, there's things
(04:59):
that defense alone can solve. Right These are things like
you know, the rare earth magnets, germanium supply, these are
things that China has strategically tried to stranglehold. And this
will require beyond just stating as a policy that you
have to sources of America. The sources are very very limited.
This is areas where I've been really encouraged by what
the Trump administration has done around trying to reignite this
(05:21):
idea of how do you do smart industrial policy? What
is it going to look like in the US. It's
going to look different. It's going to be a combination
of tariffs, it's going to be a combination of things
they did with like MP materials guaranteed off take. There's
just this very different strategy that needs to be taken
to really solve this on a country level scale. And
for US, we can be early adopters, right like, we
can take advantage of all those things, and we're building
(05:42):
out a mass of manufacturing complex in Ohio to be
able to take advantage of all of those suppliers in
the US and build a lot of things here on shore.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Okay, so the breaking news is that the president has
taken true social and he is saying that it looks
like he now won't meet with China's she and things
are changing. We will discuss that for the next hour
while we have you. Anderil has been in the headlines
partly because of the insate website of all kinds of
investors to be involved. You did a secondary or a
(06:10):
tender for your employees would you talk about the focus
you have right now in talent and that mechanism to
keep people basically.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
No, absolutely, So the defense world has shifted a lot, right, Like,
a lot of the people in traditional defense industry are
amazing at things like aircraft design and hypersonics and things
along those lines. But the next generation of this really
looks different. It really looks about software. It looks how
you adopt commercial manufacturing approaches. It's how you mass manufacture
(06:38):
these capabilities. It's a very different focus. We're moving out
of an era where we need to make relatively few,
a very very expensive, high end things. We're moving into
an era where it's much more about how do we
have things at scale that are smarter, that are more autonomous.
And so this ability to attract the best talent into
this really is coming from tech companies. It's coming from universities.
It's people who otherwise would have at you know, kind
(07:01):
of all the tech company brand names. You would know,
part of that's compensation and liquidity and all the startup economics,
but honestly a lot more of it is just do
they get to work on exciting problems with people they like,
on things that really matter? Right, and I think we
present this opportunity to be very clear in our purpose
and our mission, something that's going to be impactful, and
they get to work on just amazing cutting edge things,
(07:23):
right like making autonomous fighter jets and you know, these
reusable miss There's just an absolutely crazy thing to work
on if you're a young engineer. And that's what we've
really found is the formula to get the best and brightest.
Here is an exciting opportunity to actually contribute, give back
and build something incredible.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Ron What a joy to have you sat with us
rolling within Broiking News and be surrounded by all of
this gear that you are driving innovation on branch and
appreciate your CEO of Andreill
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