Overview of How LA Is Quietly Becoming America's New Industrial Tech Hub
This Bloomberg Odd Lots live episode explores why Southern California — especially the Los Angeles / South Bay / Orange County area — is emerging as a major U.S. center for advanced manufacturing, aerospace, defense, and industrial tech. Hosts Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway interview two founders building in that ecosystem: Chris Power, founder of Hadrian (software-powered, autonomous factories), and Tom Mueller, founder of Impulse Space and a longtime early SpaceX engineer. The conversation covers the decline and re-emergence of U.S. manufacturing, the role of vertical integration, the economics of tariffs, and why robotics and AI are increasingly inseparable from industrial power.
Why Southern California Matters
The episode argues that LA is becoming a real industrial cluster for modern hardware companies, not just a consumer-tech or entertainment market.
What’s driving the cluster
- A concentration of aerospace, defense, space, drone, nuclear, and robotics startups
- A deep labor pool of engineers and technicians from companies like SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, and TRW
- Proximity and spillover effects: companies are competing for talent but also sharing a growing ecosystem
- A broader shift where hardware is increasingly “done in LA” while software remains associated with Silicon Valley
Why this matters
- The guests frame re-industrialization as a civilizational and strategic issue, not just an economic one
- The U.S. can still build world-class systems, but it needs manufacturing capacity, speed, and trust in execution
Company Spotlights
Hadrian: software-defined factories
Chris Power describes Hadrian as an automated contract manufacturer that builds design-agnostic autonomous factories.
Key points:
- Hadrian turns manufacturing into a software and workflow problem
- It uses a digital twin / software platform plus a trained technician base
- The company makes parts and systems ranging from:
- spaceflight components
- missile systems
- portions of submarine components
- Its value proposition is speed, reliability, and lights-out / 24-7 production
Impulse Space: in-space transportation
Tom Mueller explains that Impulse Space builds systems that operate after launch, moving cargo around in space.
Key points:
- Impulse does in-space transportation, not launch itself
- It uses rockets like SpaceX’s to get to orbit, then provides:
- precision maneuvering satellites
- a high-energy transfer vehicle called Helios
- Mueller compares the system to:
- a container ship bringing cargo to a port
- Impulse as the trucks/sprinter vans moving cargo to its final orbit or destination
Main Arguments and Takeaways
1. U.S. manufacturing decline is tied to financialization
Chris Power argues that great powers eventually:
- build industrial strength
- become wealthy and complacent
- shift toward finance
- offshore the very capacity that made them dominant
His broader thesis:
- industrial power, not just reserve-currency status, is what underpins national strength
- the U.S. has drifted into a “spreadsheet returns” mindset while losing touch with physical-world reality
2. Vertical integration is about trust, not ideology
Both founders stress that vertical integration is useful, but not absolute.
Common view:
- build early prototypes in-house to learn the hard problems
- outsource once processes are stable and production-ready
- keep sensitive or schedule-critical parts in-house when reliability matters most
Power’s framing:
- manufacturing is fundamentally about trust and schedule
- sometimes it is worth paying more to avoid delays and execution risk
3. Advanced manufacturing is still a software problem
Power strongly argues that the real bottleneck in factories is not humanoid robots, but:
- software coordination
- digital engineering
- workflow integration
- machine control and setup
His point:
- the factory floor is often full of humans making high-judgment decisions
- automation succeeds when software reduces the need for human “trigonometry in the head”
4. Robotics and AI are linked to industrial capacity
Both guests see robotics as strategically important, especially in harsh environments like:
- space
- defense
- advanced factories
Mueller’s view:
- good robots need dexterity, vision, and AI
- once those mature, robots can do work humans should not have to do in space
Power’s view:
- AI progress depends on physical deployment and manufacturing scale
- whoever can produce more and deploy faster may end up with the edge in AI and defense
5. China is the central competitive benchmark
A recurring theme is that the U.S. is in a long-term industrial competition with China.
Points raised:
- China treats industrial policy as national security
- the U.S. has often treated it as a finance problem
- China’s scale and subsidy structure make it hard for U.S. firms to compete on price alone
Power argues that China subsidizes:
- energy
- labor
- capital
- exports
This lets Chinese firms undercut U.S. manufacturers even when U.S. factories are highly efficient.
Policy, Tariffs, and Industrial Strategy
The conversation gives a nuanced take on tariffs and industrial policy.
Their shared position
- The goal of policy should be to create a level playing field
- The U.S. should reduce dependence on Chinese components in sensitive sectors like:
- drones
- defense
- robotics
- Tariffs are an imperfect tool, but the underlying logic is valid
Important caveats
- Tariffs can raise costs for U.S. firms that rely on imported inputs
- Supply chains can route through third countries, reducing tariff effectiveness
- Definitions matter: “raw materials,” “assemblies,” and “components” are treated differently, often with unintended consequences
Bottom line
They support the principle of industrial protection and resilience, but acknowledge that implementation is messy and easy to game.
Notable Insights
“If it’s possible, it’s solvable”
Tom Mueller recounts multiple times when SpaceX was told something was impossible:
- building engines
- reaching orbit
- landing rockets
- flying humans to the ISS
- catching Starship with chopsticks
His takeaway:
- many “impossible” things become possible with enough iteration and engineering discipline
Manufacturing success depends on execution
Both guests emphasize:
- reliability
- delivery speed
- schedule certainty
- workforce skill
In their view, these are the real competitive advantages, not just theory or hype.
The “robot apocalypse” is also a manufacturing issue
The discussion ends up framing future military and economic power as tied to:
- who can mass-produce advanced systems
- who can train and deploy robots
- who has the infrastructure to support AI in the physical world
Key Takeaways
- Los Angeles is becoming a serious industrial tech hub, especially for aerospace, defense, robotics, and space.
- Hadrian is trying to modernize manufacturing with software-driven autonomous factories.
- Impulse Space is building the infrastructure to move payloads around in orbit.
- The guests believe U.S. industrial weakness is strategic, not just economic.
- Vertical integration, trust, and schedule reliability are recurring themes in advanced manufacturing.
- Tariffs and industrial policy are necessary but blunt tools; execution matters.
- The future of AI, robotics, and defense is increasingly tied to actual physical production capacity.
Overall Impression
This episode is part industrial policy discussion, part startup showcase, and part geopolitical warning. Its core message is that America’s next era of strength may depend on rebuilding the ability to make hard things at scale, and that Southern California is one of the most important places where that effort is already happening.