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Trae Stephens

Cofounder, Anduril Industries

Search every verified Trae Stephens interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Trae Stephens, co-founder and executive chairman of Anduril Industries, said in a June 2026 Bloomberg interview that the company’s Arsenal 1 facility in Ohio will begin production of the Fury autonomous fighter aircraft this summer, followed by the Barracuda low-cost cruise missile and the Roadrunner reusable interceptor missile. He stated that additional factories, both domestic and international, are planned. Stephens described Anduril’s original goal as introducing software and autonomy to reduce the cost of engaging modern threats, noting that it is economically impractical to use a multi-million-dollar missile against a low-cost drone. He said the company’s work now includes a focus on air defense and lowering the cost of intercepting incoming threats for the U.S. and its allies. In a May 2026 interview, Stephens said he supports mandatory civil service, not necessarily military, as a way to shape young people’s careers and improve government. He said his decision to work in national security was influenced by the September 11 attacks, and that he views deterrence as key to preventing conflict. Stephens also discussed his Christian faith and said he believes it is important to create ethical conditions for a “longstanding peace.” On venture investing, he said Founders Fund intentionally creates friction in its deal process, with no standing meetings and the ability for any partner to block an investment, resulting in fewer but more concentrated bets. He described the lesson from SpaceX as “never bet against Elon.”

Recent appearances

Notable quotes

“Yeah, it really has. I mean, I was at Palanteer very early and you know that early era of the uh you know 2005 to 2015 range where Palanteer and SpaceX were really the only players that were doing this. I mean it was a wild wild west like both companies had to sue the government uh for contracts to go through uh on the basis of this thing called title 10 uh USC 2377 which is like a commercial preference authority. So”

“Well, I think there's certainly like different places where that intersects. Um you know, one of the things that Brian Singerman uh who's one of the former partners here at Founders Fund, he used to tell us uh venture capital is a micro game, not a macro game. Um what matters is have you invested in the generational companies in in every kind of era? And uh you know I think Founders Fund has performed incredibly well”

“I'm always reminding defense tech founders that the government they're not buying the best thing to solve the job. they're buying relationships and, you know, decades of service and things like that. And so, you really have to understand how to talk with the government um and how to sell to the government in order to actually get any of the the technologies on the defense side that the war fighter needs um to to win.”

“I think you know they're constantly changing um because the obviously the ad administration's changed the politically appointed officials changed and so you get this kind of like eb and flow of how um that interaction has been shaped. If if you go back to the Obama administration there basically everyone in tech had supported Obama um when he was elected president uh but there was really no presence of tech people in”

“I think you know I'm always reminding defense tech founders that the government they're not buying the best thing to solve the job. they're buying relationships and, you know, decades of service and things like that. And so, you really have to understand how to talk with the government um and how to sell to the government in order to actually get any of the the technologies on the defense side that the war fighter ne”

“I think you know they're constantly changing um because the obviously the ad administration's changed the politically appointed officials changed and so you get this kind of like eb and flow of how um that interaction has been shaped. If if you go back to the Obama administration there basically everyone in tech had supported Obama um when he was elected president uh but there was really no presence of tech people in”

Other executives at Anduril Industries

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