It's a neat picture of US vs China's mindset and societies - vertical integration is individualism (we'll do it alone) and exceptionalism (we are better than other companies at foundrying / machining). Versus central planning where things like manufacturing are part of a national plan.
Both have their place, but China is winning and has been for years now. They took over worldwide manufacturing because they were cheaper at it, first due to lower wages, but now due to their supply chains, resources, etc.
> If America wants to build at the speed AI requires, vertical integration isn’t optional. We’re standing up our own foundry and our own large scale CNC machining capability.
Yet China, the industrial superpower, doesn't work like that. Nothing is vertically integrated and instead a massive amount of suppliers are part of a gigantic and flexible supply-chain.
The fact that CCP's China able to have a working market of independent industrial actors, whereas Venture Capital-funded America can only works with corporation-scale central planning is an interesting paradox that I would like to have an in depth explanation for.