Freeform
Freeform has received additional financial backing from NVIDIA’s NVentures and AE Ventures, with the amount raised believed to be around 14 million USD.
As part of this investment, Freeform will join the NVIDIA Inception program, leveraging NVIDIA’s accelerated computing platform to ‘supercharge’ its existing AI-driven metal 3D printing platform. The company previously received 45 million USD in funding as it emerged from stealth in February 2023.
Freeform’s AI-driven approach combines artificial intelligence and hardware-accelerated computing to provide real-time predictive control over the ‘complex physics’ of the metal 3D printing process. It has been developed to address a perceived lack of intelligent process control in traditional metal 3D printing and hopes to deliver parts with precision, speed and digital verification.
With this latest funding, Freeform will expand its portfolio of printable materials and ramp up its production capabilities to better serve the defence, aerospace, energy, semiconductor and automotive industries. The company says that its autonomous printing technology is already being leveraged by the likes of Boeing, who are interested in using Freeform’s metal AM process to ‘certify and scale metal parts for commercial aviation and defence in the future.’
“At Freeform, we are pioneering a transformation in manufacturing, where machine learning and supercomputing converge to make the impossible possible,” said Erik Palitsch, CEO and co-founder of Freeform. “Building on NVIDIA’s technology allows us to push the boundaries of what metal 3D printing can achieve, giving us the power to produce high-quality, digitally verified parts at speeds that were unimaginable a few years ago.”
“Freeform is leading the way toward autonomous manufacturing using accelerated computing,” added Mohamed ‘Sid’ Siddeek, Corporate Vice President at NVIDIA and head of NVentures. “Their use of real-time AI-driven process controls and cutting-edge metrology systems sets a new standard for metal additive manufacturing.”
"To meet the demands of the 21st century, companies need technology that can move as fast as their ideas," offered Eugene Kim of AE Ventures. "Freeform is light years ahead in metal additive manufacturing, offering a scalable, flexible solution that ensures quality at every stage—from prototype to full-scale production. This is the breakthrough the aerospace industry has been waiting for. AE Ventures partnered with the highest levels of Boeing's technical staff to review Freeform's printing capability, and we have walked away extremely confident in their ability to revolutionize metal additive manufacturing."
