Because these are physical inputs, without the literal units of material you physically cannot build anything, and national security depends on them
Caldwell makes the argument that unlike intangible national-security issues, minerals are physical — if you don't have the units, you simply cannot build, and in an increasingly contested world, hard power matters. ✦ AI generated
Turner Caldwell · a16z Podcast · 2026-08-05 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 1:14
Obviously, there are many things that matter in national security. Some of them are intangible, but these are very physical. And if you don't have the literal units you need to make something, you physically can't make it. And you know, we've seen an increasingly developed coast world, hard power does matter a lot. And so, if you can't get what you need to build things, you can't build them in a very obvious sense.
verbatim transcript · starts at 1:14
1:13transition just over the last several decades. Having an over reliance on any [music] single geographic player reduces our ability to have self-determination [music] and control of our own destiny. >> Obviously, there are many things that matter in [music] national security. Some of them are intangible, but these are very physical. And if you don't have the literal units you need to make something, you physically can't make it.
1:34And you know, we've seen [music] an increasingly developed coast world, hard power does matter a lot. And so, if you can't get what you need [music] to build things, you can't build them in a very obvious sense. My name is Turner Caldwell. I'm the CEO of Mariana Minerals. [music] From San Francisco originally, went to Stanford. Mechanical engineering background and then spent about a decade at Tesla. I
1:56[music] started working on manufacturing equipment with our battery cell providers. And when you start working on kind of like the intermediate supply chain, you start to realize that the metals are the things [music] that are actually driving past and are probably the biggest bottleneck. And so I got super excited about that. And if you look at the big industrial sectors, [music] you have automotive and Tesla took that on. have the space industry