Velo3D

Velo3D is an American metal additive manufacturing company founded in 2014 and headquartered in Campbell, California, producing the Sapphire series of laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) printers with a proprietary "Intelligent Fusion" process that enables printing at zero-degree overhang angles without support structures — a fundamental capability advantage over conventional LPBF systems that require support structures for angles below 45 degrees.

Support structures in conventional metal 3D printing are a costly liability: they consume material, require manual post-processing to remove, add inspection steps, and can be inaccessible inside complex internal channels. Velo3D's floating print head and advanced melt-pool monitoring system stabilize the powder bed at extreme angles, enabling the production of rocket engine components with complex internal cooling channels, manifolds, and combustion chambers that cannot be printed on conventional systems. This capability is precisely what propulsion engineers designing high-performance rocket engines require.

SpaceX became Velo3D's first customer in 2018 through an $8 million licensing agreement, using the technology for rocket engine components. Subsequent aerospace customers include Launcher (E-2 engine chambers), Relativity Space, Ursa Major Technologies (Hadley and Ripley rocket engines), and Aerojet Rocketdyne. Velo3D's Sapphire printers process Inconel 718, Inconel 625, titanium 6Al-4V, and aluminum alloy feedstocks — the materials that dominate rocket engine and hot section component manufacturing.

Velo3D went public via SPAC merger (NYSE: VLD) in 2021, reaching a market valuation exceeding $1.7 billion, though subsequent revenue shortfalls and macroeconomic pressures compressed valuation. The company differentiates by assembling all Sapphire printer systems domestically in the United States — a supply chain advantage for defense and government customers requiring domestically manufactured critical equipment.