Freeform is turning laser metal printing into autonomous factory capacity

Freeform raised a $67 million Series B on February 19, 2026 to scale laser-AI manufacturing after emerging from stealth in 2023 with $45 million. The Los Angeles company is building software-defined autonomous metal-printing factories, with investors including NVentures, AE Ventures, Founders Fund, and earlier backers tied to advanced manufacturing and aerospace demand.

Freeform was founded by former SpaceX engineers, with co-founder and CEO Erik Palitsch bringing experience from rocket-engine work where metal 3D printing was already part of production. The company sells manufacturing-as-a-service rather than only printer hardware, using automated laser metal printing systems to deliver parts for customers. Its 2023 stealth launch named Embark Trucks and Ursa Major as customers, with Ursa Major using Freeform for rocket-engine components.

The core process is built around GoldenEye, a production system that uses 18 lasers to fuse metal powders into precision components. Freeform's next-generation Skyfall platform, planned for 2026, is intended to scale from 18 lasers to hundreds of lasers and push output into thousands of kilograms of metal. That is the strategic jump: from advanced print cells into autonomous factory capacity.

The NVIDIA and Boeing context matters through process control and certification. Freeform secured strategic investment from NVIDIA's NVentures and AE Ventures in 2024, joined NVIDIA Inception, and uses accelerated computing for predictive process control. AE Ventures also coordinated a Boeing technical review of Freeform's printing capability for future commercial aviation and defense certification work.

The competitive field includes Velo3D, Desktop Metal/ExOne-style metal additive systems, Relativity Space manufacturing work, Hadrian, Divergent, traditional CNC suppliers, and in-house aerospace additive programs. Freeform's distinction is autonomous manufacturing-as-a-service: customers buy qualified parts and capacity rather than adopting and tuning the metal printers themselves.

Public material still does not disclose GoldenEye build volume, supported material list, part-size range, print yield by material, machine uptime, quality-control logs, or customer production volumes. The strategic question is whether Freeform can make laser metal printing behave like reliable factory capacity. If Skyfall scales output while keeping quality and certification paths intact, Freeform becomes an autonomous manufacturing supplier for aerospace, defense, energy, and mobility customers that need metal parts faster than conventional tooling can move.

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