Luckey urges Taiwan to make 10 times more arms with Anduril
Anduril founder Palmer Luckey said in Taipei on Thursday that Taiwan should expand beyond semiconductors and become a major weapons supplier. He said the island should make 10 times more weapons than it needs for itself, then keep that capacity inside if war comes.
Luckey made the comments during Computex, a trade show that ended Friday. He said Taiwan should aim to export completed weapons systems, not only advanced chips, and that it could build a second defensive shield alongside its silicon shield.
Luckey in Taipei
Luckey said Taiwan is not ever going to need enough arms purely for itself to justify a large defense market or a large weapons market. “I think the ideal situation is one where Taiwan is not just exporting high-end semiconductors and chips, but actually completed weapons systems to the rest of the world,” he said.
He added: “If I were running Taiwan, I would be trying to make myself indispensable to the rest of the world in as many ways as I could, including defense items.” He also said Taiwan should scale up autonomous systems and focus more on exporting production.
Drone supply gaps
Luckey pointed to a gap in Taiwan’s domestic supply chain for specialized drone components, including AI imaging modules and flight control systems and modules. He said there are now around 30 Taiwanese companies in Anduril’s supply chains, a sign that local production already reaches into the company’s work.
Taiwan’s government has launched an initiative to manufacture critical components it currently imports by March 2027. Luckey did not describe that plan as enough on its own; he argued Taiwan should build far more capacity than its own military would need.
Asymmetric systems for China
Luckey said Taiwan needs asymmetric capabilities against China, using highly mobile and relatively inexpensive systems against more sophisticated and expensive ones. He said Taiwan does not need to be as strong as the PLA Army.
“Taiwan doesn't need to be as strong as the PLA Army,” he said. “It doesn't need to even be a hundredth of what China's military is, as long as it has what it needs to prevent China's military from getting across the strait, landing material in mass quantities, and then supplying a sustained occupation.”
For readers tracking Taiwan’s defense industry, the practical next step is whether the island’s manufacturing push can move beyond imported parts and into export-grade systems. Luckey’s argument ties that industrial shift to supply-chain resilience and wartime flexibility, not just domestic procurement.
