The American Dynamism 50 is a16z's annual list of companies building for America's future. This year's edition covers the industrial base end to end, from the inputs that come out of the ground to factories that make things and systems that deter conflict. a16z's Erin Price-Wright and Connor Love join Elena Burger to break down this year's list and its theme, Production is Deterrence, built around a simple idea: "You don't have a defense industrial base without an industrial base." 0:50 From mines to factories and systems 3:05 How the internet and nuclear was built 5:05 Drones built DJI into a robotics giant 6:50 Defense dollars pay for new factories 8:30 SpaceX and Tesla lessons on scale 10:15 How Mariana runs a mine on software 12:20 "AI cannot turn a wrench yet" 14:10 Retooling in 20 mins, not 3 months 17:45 Startups build before Pentagon asks 20:35 Why hard tech can be more valuable 24:45 The race for the biggest American flag 28:25 How defense parts unlock US robotics 32:05 The rise of the "manufacturing middle" 37:25 Anduril and SpaceX founder mafias 41:05 Private capital: USA's edge over China 46:30 The buildout must hit Middle America YouTube: @espricewright @ConnorLoveCA @VirtualElena

The honest reason every VC is suddenly an American Dynamism investor, from @jmj: "My theory is that a lot of investors have just gotten wrecked by their AI investments from 2022 to 2025. You invested in ten vertical AI companies, and nine out of the ten got destroyed by Claude or OpenAI. So you're like, oh, this software stuff is really hard. Maybe I'll go do physical world. Hard tech and deep tech haven't gotten easier. It's just that it's the last place where it seems the big labs won't come in and disrupt your company two months after you do the seed. There's also, to be fair, a lot of really interesting things being built in deep tech. The culture and zeitgeist of national interest and the American Dynamism theme has become not only accepted, but embraced. Two or three years ago that theme was still pretty new and for a variety of reasons wasn't the thing people wanted to invest in. Now, everyone wants to be an American dynamism investor."

BREAKING: a16z announces a new regional HQ in West Palm Beach for their $1.2B American Dynamism fund, which focuses on Defence and Aerospace spending. Florida ranks fourth nationally in Department of War spending.

SPEAKER ANNOUNCEMENT: @ConnorLoveCA General Partner at @a16z, will be joining the Space & Defense Investor Summit. Prior to a16z, Connor led Lightspeed’s space and defense investments. He’s also a former active duty Captain in the U.S. Army who served across the Pacific and the Middle East. a16z's American Dynamism portfolio includes companies such as @anduriltech, @Saronic, @CastelionCorp, @Apex_Satellites, @shieldaitech and many others. 📍 The Beverly Hilton 🗓️ November 3 - 4, 2026