Anduril Industries founder Palmer Luckey says Taiwan's semiconductor and manufacturing ecosystem gives it a decisive advantage in a world where technology and defense are increasingly intertwined.
In an interview on Honestly with Bari Weiss, Luckey warned that China is "gaming out how to invade Taiwan," but stressed that the goal of deterrence lies in technology, not confrontation. "The goal isn't to beat China in a fight," he said. "The goal is to make them never want to start one."
Credit: The Free Press
Technology as the core of deterrence
Luckey argued that industrial capability and innovation—from semiconductors to artificial intelligence systems—now define global power.
"Taiwan is one of only a few countries capable of building advanced systems from scratch," he said, suggesting that its strength in chipmaking, sensors, and materials could serve as both an economic and strategic deterrent.
He outlined a three-stage deterrence logic centered on resilience:
Day one: advanced systems and autonomous defenses make invasion operationally impossible.
Day 100: Economic interdependence makes prolonged disruption unsustainable.
Day 1000: a self-sufficient industrial ecosystem ensures national continuity.
From consumer electronics to defense innovation
During a visit to Taiwan in August 2024, Luckey told a local audience that the island's future security depends on a "techno-industrial renaissance", where leading-edge manufacturing shifts from purely commercial production to strategic resilience.
He called on Taiwan to reimagine its existing strengths—using semiconductor fabs for secure computing and defense applications, transforming optical and sensor expertise into advanced targeting systems, and adapting materials engineering from consumer products to autonomous platforms.
"The same engineers who build the best smartphones and artificial intelligence chips can build the best autonomous systems for defense," he said.
Anduril's expanding footprint in Taiwan
Anduril, a fast-growing US defense technology company specializing in artificial intelligence-powered surveillance, drones, and autonomous systems, has opened an office in Taiwan and is recruiting local engineers.
Luckey said Taiwan's deep bench of supply chain partners and manufacturing precision make it a natural hub for developing "democracy-aligned technologies"—a term he uses to describe systems that strengthen security among open societies.
He also discussed efforts to build a "democracy-friendly supply chain", urging companies to go beyond regulatory compliance by auditing dependencies on Chinese components and materials. "You need ideological fanatics inside organizations who keep checking for where your chips, your carbon fiber, your lithium really come from," he said.
Lessons from Ukraine and US reindustrialization
Luckey drew parallels to the war in Ukraine, saying it proved that industrial readiness and innovation speed matter more than traditional arsenals. Deterrence, he said, is achieved when advanced technology makes aggression mathematically unwinnable.
He also connected this to reindustrialization in democratic economies, arguing that reshoring and nearshoring advanced manufacturing are vital to maintaining geopolitical leverage. "Globalism created fragility," he said. "Strategic independence will come from building again—especially in hardware."
Why it matters for Taiwan's tech industry
Luckey's message resonates beyond defense circles: Taiwan's leadership in semiconductors, precision manufacturing, and materials science places it at the heart of the global debate on tech sovereignty and supply chain security.
As Washington, Tokyo, and Taipei deepen cooperation in chips and artificial intelligence, the boundaries between commercial innovation and national security are rapidly disappearing.
Luckey's call for Taiwan to "believe it can win" is, in essence, a call to recognize that its industrial ecosystem itself is the deterrent—one that shapes not only security outcomes but also the future architecture of global technology alliances.
Article edited by Jerry Chen
