Creality CEO Jack Chen on IPO Plans: Desktop 3D Printing Could Reach 30-50% of Households

From Hardware to Market Penetration

As Creality moves towards a public listing, founder and CEO Jack Chen is pitching a long-term growth story to investors — one that focuses less on quarterly results and more on whether the desktop 3D printing market can continue expanding.

For many investors, what they care about the most is the future market size of the 3D printing industry, Chen said in an interview. He pointed to industry growth rates of roughly 20 to 30 percent a year, arguing that the durability of that expansion matters more than near-term volatility.

The PC Analogy

Chen repeatedly returned to penetration rather than technology as the core metric. He likened the current stage of desktop 3D printing to personal computing several decades ago, when adoption was limited and uneven.

The picture that I depicted for them is a little bit like phones or laptops 20 or 30 years ago, he said, adding that the ceiling for household and small business use remains distant. A long-term vision may result in 30 to 50 percent of households owning a printer or using 3D printing services several times a year.

Openness vs Competition

Creality positions itself in deliberate contrast to rivals like Bambu Lab, whose tightly integrated hardware and software platforms have won traction among advanced hobbyists. Chen emphasised openness as a defining principle.

We believe in, and we are also delivering on openness, he said, describing Creality as an open source company. The emphasis on openness comes alongside a growing portfolio of proprietary protections as the company scales.

We own 800 to 1,000 patents ourselves, Chen said, stressing that patent ownership and openness are not mutually exclusive.

Ecosystem Investment

That approach has translated into substantial spending on ecosystem development. Chen said Creality invests millions of dollars a year in industry promotion, including sponsoring more than 1,000 universities in China with free printers to establish campus-based clubs and events.

The aim, he said, is to raise awareness and familiarity rather than to secure immediate sales. Chen argued that multiple companies investing in education would expand the overall market.