Top 3D Printing Stocks Worth Investing Now for Solid Returns

An updated edition of the December 1, 2025 article.

3D Printing, widely known as additive manufacturing, has transformed how products are designed and produced. Introduced in the 1980s, the technology turns digital models into physical objects by building them layer by layer, offering unmatched precision, customization and efficiency.

What began as a prototyping technique, 3D printing has evolved into a scalable manufacturing solution used to manufacture products ranging from prosthetics and  aerospace parts to architectural models and consumer goods. Unlike traditional manufacturing, which carves a product from a block of material, additive manufacturing minimizes waste, enables greater customization and supports innovative, complex designs that conventional methods cannot achieve.

Companies are increasingly adopting 3D Printing for rapid prototyping and on-demand production, given its advantages in terms of cost, customization, precision and sustainability compared with traditional manufacturing methods. Localized production also helps shorten supply chains and lower transportation costs; on-demand manufacturing eliminates the need to maintain large inventories. These benefits are especially valuable for industries with seasonal demand or urgent spare-part requirements. Leading players such as Xometry XMTR, Proto Labs PRLB and Stratasys SSYS are driving innovation in this space.

Adoption is accelerating across key sectors, including healthcare, aerospace, automotive and consumer goods. In aerospace, the technology is used to produce lightweight yet durable aircraft and spacecraft components. The automotive industry relies on 3D printing for prototyping, tooling and customized parts. In healthcare, it enables the production of patient-specific medical devices and prosthetics, with ongoing advances in tissue and organ printing holding the potential to reshape modern medicine.

North America leads the market with more than 35% share, supported by strong R&D investment, government initiatives and advanced manufacturing infrastructure. Meanwhile, the Asia-Pacific region, led by China and India, is rapidly expanding its adoption to enhance industrial competitiveness.

We believe that 3D Printing offers compelling growth opportunities for investors, supported by its expanding addressable market and strong innovation pipeline.

Our 3D Printing Screen makes it easy to identify high-potential stocks. Currently, stocks like NVIDIA NVDA, AMETEK AME, ATI Inc. ATI and Carpenter Technology CRS look lucrative. 

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4 Must-Have 3D Printing Stocks for Your Portfolio

NVIDIA has significantly influenced the 3D Printing industry by integrating its advanced AI and graphics processing unit (GPU) technologies into various facets of additive manufacturing. Its contributions to 3D printing have become more pronounced in recent years, particularly through collaborations and technological advancements.

A notable example is NVDA’s partnership with HP’s HPQ 3D Printing division, with the latter using NVIDIA’s AI tool, Modulus, to boost efficiency and accuracy in manufacturing. HP has developed Virtual Foundry Graphnet, which helps streamline production by accurately predicting how metal powders will behave during the 3D Printing process, assisting manufacturers in optimizing the process, reducing errors and defects, and improving part quality.

NVIDIA is also backing startups that are pushing boundaries in 3D Printing. For instance, Freeform, a company founded by former SpaceX engineers, secured funding from NVIDIA's venture arm, NVentures, in October 2024. This marked a new beginning in advanced manufacturing, wherein Artificial Intelligence and hardware-accelerated computing converge to fundamentally redefine metal production. By utilizing NVIDIA's accelerated computing platform, Freeform is building the world's first AI-native, autonomous metal 3D printing factory.

NVDA has developed a generative AI tool called Magic3D, which can create high-quality 3D textured mesh models from text prompts. Another innovation, LATTE3D (Large-scale Amortized Text-To-Enhanced3D Synthesis), is a text-to-3D generator that creates 3D models in less than a second, leveraging the power of NVIDIA’s RTX A6000 GPU. With this groundbreaking advancement, NVIDIA propelled 3D design into an era of unprecedented efficiency and creativity.

NVIDIA’s Omniverse platform and PhysX engine enable real-time simulation of materials and structures, which are useful for testing a 3D print before actually printing it. NVDA’s NeRFs (Neural Radiance Fields) is an AI model that reconstructs 3D models from 2D photos. This is useful for reverse engineering objects for 3D printing, turning real-world items into printable models, and converting video or image data into detailed 3D meshes. NVDA currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

AMETEK, through its Specialty Metal Products (SMP) division, is a leading producer of high-performance metal powders designed for additive manufacturing. It offers a range of alloys and size distributions specific to different additive manufacturing processes, including Laser Powder Bed, Binder Jet and Cold Spray and machines. AME’s most common additive manufacturing powder materials include stainless steel 316L (including A240 grade), Stainless steel 304L and Stainless steel 17-4PH. It also offers specialty austenitic and ferritic stainless steels, along with a selection of high-quality nickel and cobalt alloy powders that are designed specifically for 3D printing applications.

Backed by more than five decades of expertise, the combination of scale, precision and material science enables the company to deliver reliable, high-quality powders that support consistent performance and cost efficiency in additive manufacturing.

In July 2025, AME closed the $920 million acquisition of Faro Technologies, a leading provider of 3D measurement and imaging solutions. Faro’s offerings include portable measurement arms, laser scanners and trackers, software solutions and comprehensive service offerings serving a diverse range of end markets. It is its largest addition in precision scanning since the acquisition of Creaform in 2013.  Creaform is a well-known developer and manufacturer of innovative portable 3D measurement technologies and a provider of 3D engineering services. In October 2024, the company had complemented Creaform’s business capabilities by acquiring Virtek Vision International, a leading provider of advanced laser-based projection and inspection systems. With Faro added to Creaform and Virtek under

Uner Ametek’s Ultra Precision Technologies division, it now commands a solid 3D metrology portfolio. AME currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). 

ATI offers a full range of capabilities throughout the additive supply chain, from metal powder and material science to the finished part. ATI Additive Manufacturing is one of the few providers to deliver expertise in both Electron Beam Melting and Direct Metal Laser Melting for additive parts.

Given its extensive powder metals offering, ATI Additive can quickly respond to customers' needs for their additive part demands. Leveraging ATI’s metallurgical leadership, it can also develop new alloys for additive manufacturing on request or address industry challenges. The company continues to increase its production capacity for advanced metallic powders for use in next-generation aerospace products, including additive manufacturing applications.

ATI has commissioned a state-of-the-art facility for additive manufacturing products, bringing online the most advanced large-format, metal additive manufacturing capabilities in the industry. The facility combines design, printing, heat treating, machining and inspection capabilities under one roof. From design to finished product, the company has created a one-stop solution center to address challenges in high-performance markets like aerospace, defense and space. ATI currently carries a Zacks Rank of 2.

Carpenter Technology formed the Carpenter Additive business unit in May 2019. The company has been building its additive capabilities through the acquisitions of LPW Technology Ltd., Puris and CalRAM over the past few years. In late 2019, CRS opened its Emerging Technology Center in Athens, AL, capable of atomizing a range of specialty alloys into metal powder and manufacturing the powder into finished parts using AM technology (3D Metal Printing). The downstream equipment for transforming the initially produced part into a final finished product included the state-of-the-art quick-cooling Hot Isostatic Press system, as well as vacuum heat treating to optimize the material properties of high-value specialty alloy components.

The Carpenter Additive business is one of the world's most versatile producers of spherical, gas-atomized, pre-alloyed metal powders and consolidated powder metallurgy products. The powders meet the unique demands of additive manufacturing, metal injection molding, hot isostatic pressing, near-net shapes, surface enhancement processes and tool steels.

Starting from powder production to manufacturing and finishing parts, the end-to-end capabilities differentiate Carpenter Additive from the rest of the industry. CRS currently carries a Zacks Rank of 2. 

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