The U.S. is wrong about military deterrence, according to Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar. America relies on the threat of its large weapons stockpiles to discourage aggression, but Sankar says the real deterrent is production capacity — "the ability to generate the stockpile."
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Sankar argued that artificial intelligence could help the United States rebuild manufacturing strength, outproduce adversaries and restore its edge over global rivals like China, ideas he expands on in his new book, "Mobilize: How to Reboot the American Industrial Base and Stop World War III."
To Sankar, the conflict in Ukraine is proof that the U.S. "is getting the calculus of deterrence wrong."
"We thought it was the stockpile that would provide deterrence. And what Ukraine showed us, because we went through 10 years of production in 10 weeks of fighting, is that actually, it's the ability to generate the stockpile. It's the factory," he said.
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"And we have been producing so few weapons at such a small rate that actually, it's not effectively scary to anyone. We're both precious about using them and worried about rebuilding them."
He claimed that, if it came to an intense battle against China, the United States would have around eight days' worth of weapons on hand.
"That is not scaring the adversary," he said.
Sankar pointed to World War II as an example of this. Germany was able to build more sophisticated weapons than America, but in much smaller quantities, he said.
"In the present moment, the Chinese are the best at mass production. And now we look like the Germans."
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But if AI could be used "to give the American worker superpowers," he said, the imbalance could be corrected and America could retake the lead. He contended that China has made a grave error in its assessment that the U.S. is a nation in decline.
"The No. 1 thing that China is getting wrong is they're underestimating the American spirit. In our kind of Judeo-Christian tradition, we start by turning the other cheek over and over and over again. But at some point, we will snap."
Sankar said there are lessons to be learned from China's military posture, but the most important one is recognizing that innovation goes hand in hand with productivity.
"The central lie of globalization is that we can do the innovation and other folks are going to do the production. But if you do that for long enough, what you realize is that they work their way up the stack," he told Fox News Digital.
Put simply, Sankar argued that the people building any given technology day after day are the ones who will discover where there is room for increased efficiency and improvements. Offshoring manufacturing has deprived Americans of that stimulus, he said.
Sankar gave China credit for its long-term planning, claiming that it has been investing in closing the gap between its military and America's since the first Gulf War. He said China hasn't attempted to hide these investments, but due to the slow speed of progress, the U.S. hardly takes note.
AI, then, can give America the edge once more, because China could not have planned for it. Sankar advocated for reshoring industrial development, but not solely for the purpose of bringing rote manufacturing processes to American soil. He asserted that this is the key to strengthening America's national security and spirit of invention.
"We're not going to re-industrialize symmetrically," Sankar said. "We're not just going to take the things they're doing as they're doing them and bring them here. No, we're going to do them in entirely different ways that help us close the business case on bringing all of these capabilities in production back home."
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