As war in the Middle East rages, a familiar debate has returned: Can America’s industry support our military goals?
Our adversaries have a lot more hardware—China has more ships; Russia has more tanks. But America does have an advantage, according to Mobilize: How to Reboot the American Industrial Base and Stop World War III, a new book from Palantir chief technology officer Shyam Sankar and his colleague Madeline Hart: Our software is second to none.
“As America’s industrial base has lost ground, a rift has opened,” they write, “between Silicon Valley start-ups and legacy defense companies.” Between the sources of thriving software and rusting hardware. But what if our incredible technology could transform the way we make things in the material world?
In the following exclusive excerpt, Sankar and Hart argue that for the U.S. to remain the most powerful nation in the world, we need an industrial revolution—with the help of the Silicon Valley. —The Editors
U.S. manufacturing has struggled for years. In 2023, the overall productivity of the manufacturing sector was lower than at any point since 2003. In other words, our country’s industrial base was roughly as efficient as it was when George W. Bush was a first-term president and Facebook was a twinkle in Mark Zuckerberg’s eye.
And yet, during this very same period, the iPhone was introduced. Software took over the world. Data shifted to the cloud. Cars started driving themselves. Artificial intelligence (AI) put brains in machines.
