The only way to make that obsolete is for us to continually innovate at every level. So germanium gets banned by China. Did you know that we can produce the entire semiconductor-ready germanium supply needs of the United States using coal ash leaching and zinc smelting residues already here in the United States? The Department of Energy is leading pilots right now to basically convert and recycle those materials into things that could replace our entire germanium need. It would exceed our germanium need that we just had in 2024. When we’re talking about innovation at the supply base, it starts at the raw materials and then it goes up. There’s a company called Divergent that a lot of people are really excited about. I’m excited because their software is defining the casting and forging process right now. There are casting and forging facilities across the United States, across the world, that are these central nodes critical to all of our supply chains.

Most people think supply chains are big triangles. They’re actually pyramids and diamonds. There are three providers that can do magnesium casting in the United States and if anything happens to them, it’s a big problem. For instance, we’ve had three of those diamond points either have fires or had to idle their production because of financial issues. In just the last three months alone, all their capabilities are gone. And so being able to print these components, these alloys that can replace all those casting and forging facilities with new modernized facilities, it can generate a much more rapid, innovative supply chain. Think about the entire supply chain like a bunch of APIs feeding off one another.

The final element is that labor arbitrage as the major driver of cost differentiation in supply chains is gone. In north Texas, some places are deregulated enough that you can build factories in under two years that are cheaper than places in China. Printing robotics is a global market, and places in Vietnam and China can’t compete on a differentiated margin basis. Even a small tariff between the United States and one of these other countries can lead to the investment coming in and helping us to build these capital capabilities. It costs us between $100 million to $300 million of CapEx to build a new casting forging facility. It costs us $50 million in CapEx from deployment to part in utilizing a divergent robotic capability.