The underside of Anduril’s BlueChip laptop prototype Credit: Anduril Industries Defence company Anduril and chipmaker Qualcomm plan to make laptops in the US, the two companies announced today. The new product line, called BlueChip, is aimed at government, defence, emergency services and other critical users. The first laptop will run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Series chips, which handle its processing, graphics and on-device AI. Anduril will assemble the circuit boards at Arsenal-1, its large weapons factory in Ohio.
It already has working prototypes and plans to start taking orders in 2027. The companies say the project is about national security. Most computers and their parts are made abroad, mainly in Asia, so a war or supply shock could cut off access to them, they argue. BlueChip will not be fully American at first.
Parts from US and allied suppliers make up more than 90% of what the prototypes’ components cost, according to Anduril. The aim is to move step by step towards a supply chain based entirely in the US. That has meant redesigning the laptop around what US industry can make today. Anduril chose metals that American factories can machine at scale and designed the battery system to work with US battery technology.
It is also working on a way to fit US-made display glass. Anduril founder Palmer Luckey said a laptop is not so different from the drones his company already builds. “The only difference is the shape, and that it has a screen and a keyboard,” he told Bloomberg. He admitted the laptops will cost more at first. “In the near term, this is going to be more expensive than a laptop made in China,” Luckey said. He expects US-made computers to become just as competitive in the long run, but gave no production targets.
The US has spent billions on building chip factories at home. But a computer also needs circuit boards, screens and batteries, which are still mostly made overseas. Washington has also been tightening its rules on China, most recently with new limits on US investment in Chinese AI. Anduril, based in Costa Mesa, California, makes drones, missiles and other military hardware.
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