Freeform Raises $67M for AI-Native Manufacturing
Freeform, a company specializing in AI-native metal additive manufacturing, has secured $67 million in a Series B funding round. The investment is aimed at advancing the company's scalable, AI-driven manufacturing processes. This development highlights growing investor interest in AI applications that transform physical industries.
- The funding round included significant participation from NVIDIA's venture capital arm, NVentures, as well as Founders Fund, AE Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, Threshold Ventures, Linse Capital, and Apandion. - This Series B round brings Freeform's total capital raised to more than $120 million, following a $45 million round in early 2023 and a $14 million round in 2024. - The company was founded by former SpaceX engineers Erik Palitsch and TJ Ronacher, who were principal architects and lead analysts for the Merlin and Raptor rocket engine programs. - Proceeds will fund the development and deployment of "Skyfall," Freeform's next-generation factory platform scheduled to go live in the first half of 2026. - The Skyfall platform is projected to increase production capacity by 25 times and expand the company's usable material offerings by more than tenfold. - Freeform's technical approach involves co-locating high-performance computing infrastructure, including NVIDIA H200 GPU clusters, directly on the factory floor to run real-time process controls and simulations. - The company is already in continuous production for clients in aerospace, including SpaceX, and states that current customer demand has officially outpaced its manufacturing capacity. - Freeform's system uses AI and a proprietary technology stack including robotics, sensing, and machine learning to function as a unified, autonomous factory, a concept it refers to as "Physical AI".
