Freeform, a startup merging artificial intelligence with advanced manufacturing, just closed a $67 million Series B to scale its laser-based metal fabrication technology. The round signals growing investor confidence in AI's ability to transform traditional manufacturing - and Freeform's unusual approach of housing Nvidia H200 GPU clusters directly on the factory floor is turning heads across both Silicon Valley and industrial America.
Freeform is betting that the future of manufacturing looks less like a traditional factory floor and more like a data center that happens to melt metal. The Los Angeles-based startup just secured $67 million in Series B funding to prove it, deploying Nvidia's latest H200 GPU clusters inside its production facility to control precision laser systems that build metal parts layer by layer.
"I think we're the only quote-unquote manufacturing company out there that has H200 clusters in a data center on site," a company representative told TechCrunch in an exclusive interview. That's not just Silicon Valley swagger - it's a fundamental reimagining of how AI and physical production intersect.
The financing comes as manufacturers worldwide grapple with labor shortages, supply chain fragility, and demands for increasingly complex parts. Freeform's approach uses machine learning models running on high-performance computing infrastructure to control industrial lasers with microscopic precision, adjusting power, speed, and trajectory thousands of times per second as they fuse metal powder into finished components.
Unlike traditional 3D printing startups that focus on prototyping or small-batch production, Freeform is gunning for scale manufacturing applications where tolerances matter and downtime costs millions. The company already counts SpaceX among its customers, according to the TechCrunch report, suggesting its technology has cleared the rigorous qualification hurdles that aerospace and defense contractors demand.
