Staff Reports
James Proud, founder and CEO of Substrate, told attendees at a Washington policy event that artificial intelligence isn’t just a technical novelty — it’s the clearest path we have to rebuild America’s manufacturing base and bring jobs back from China. Proud argued that AI, paired with modernized chip production, gives the United States a once-in-a-generation chance to reclaim industrial strength and worker dignity.
Substrate has made it its mission to revive domestic semiconductor manufacturing, pushing advanced tooling and novel approaches to lithography so the U.S. can stop outsourcing its industrial backbone. Proud praised recent moves to fund and build fabs on American soil, pointing to revived investment from Intel, TSMC, Samsung and others as proof that industry is ready to come home.
Beyond factories and fabs, Proud made the conservative case that AI can restore worker sovereignty by amplifying human capability rather than replacing it, giving everyday Americans more freedom to pursue skilled, meaningful work. He framed the technology as an enabler that will let people be “much more general in what they can go and do,” a welcome contrast to the dead-end service jobs that globalization thrust upon entire communities.
Let’s be clear: this is about national power and economic independence. For years our elites treated manufacturing as expendable, shipping our capacity overseas while telling working people to accept the crumbs of an economy rigged for coastal financiers; now the strategic urgency of chips and AI demands we reverse that course. Proud’s message should be a rallying cry for conservatives who believe in patriotism, production, and putting Americans to work.
The political argument is simple — support entrepreneurs who want to build here, and enact policies that reward production instead of punishing it with red tape and offshoring incentives. President Trump’s administration, Proud noted, has helped galvanize fab construction and funding, showing that when the government prioritizes supply-chain resilience it yields tangible results for national security and jobs. Conservatives should applaud and push for more of this commonsense approach.
Private capital and visionaries have already started moving. Venture backers and industry insiders are betting on American solutions to the chip shortage, and companies like Substrate are proof that free enterprise can pair with patriotic policy to outcompete adversaries. If conservatives want to win the future, we should celebrate and amplify these efforts rather than cede technological leadership to China or to bureaucrats who never held a wrench.
The choice is ours: cling to failed nostrums of globalization or seize the AI revolution to restore manufacturing, dignity, and security for hardworking Americans. James Proud’s call to empower workers with technology is a conservative blueprint for rebuilding prosperity — and it’s past time the country chose production over dependency.
