Where cost-plus shows up in the material In this channel's captured material, cost-plus appears once — and tellingly, in a single passing phrase. Explaining his techno-industrial thesis, Packy McCormick names Anduril as his favorite example: smaller, cheaper, software-infused hardware that 'takes on cost-plus risk against the defense primes, delivering a better product to government'. [^a8fc1da7-742b-5179-bcd1-e8048b077aad@0] How to read that phrase The framing matters. If the traditional defense primes operate under a cost-plus arrangement — where the buyer covers the contractor's costs and adds a profit margin — then the contractor carries little cost risk. Packy's point is that Anduril does the opposite: by taking on that risk itself, it can deliver better, cheaper products while keeping the upside of higher margins — margins it then reinvests into R&D and growth. That risk-shift is part of what makes a company techno-industrial rather than deep tech in his taxonomy. Keep the scope honest Note what the material does not say: it never spells out the contract mechanics or gives a worked example of a cost-plus contract. The term functions here as shorthand the audience is expected to roughly grasp, used to sharpen a contrast between incumbents and Anduril. Treat it as a contextual clue within the techno-industrial argument, not a full treatment of government procurement. <ul><li>Cost-plus appears in a single phrase about Anduril: it takes on cost-plus risk against the defense primes.</li><li>The term evokes a contracting model where the buyer covers costs plus a profit — meaning incumbents bear little cost risk.</li><li>Anduril's move is to absorb that risk itself, delivering better products to government at higher margins.</li><li>The usage is shorthand inside the techno-industrial thesis; the material doesn't elaborate the contract mechanics.</li></ul>