All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg · Wednesday, August 5, 2026
Dino Mavroudis outlined the decline of the US naval fleet, noting it has 296 ships against a mandate of 355, while retiring more vessels than it builds annually. In contrast, China's navy has rapidly expanded over the last 30 years, now possessing nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers.
“So the US naval fleet has 296 ships today. There's a congressional mandate, statutory minimum of 355 ships that was set by Congress in 2018. That was eight years ago.”
“Last year, we built nine ships. But we retired 19 naval vessels. So we're going in the wrong completely wrong direction.”
“The Chinese delivered somewhere in the ballpark of 30 ships. Their fleet size is around 370. They'll be at 450 before you know it.”
“Because again, 30 years ago, the Chinese Navy was a lateral backwater navy. Today, they have nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers, hypersonic missiles.”