Formlabs Is in Early Talks for a $500 Million IPO

What We Know

Formlabs, the Somerville, Massachusetts maker of desktop and industrial 3D printers, is in early discussions with financial advisers about an initial public offering that could raise roughly $500 million. Bloomberg reported the news on August 7, citing people familiar with the deliberations.

The company has not publicly confirmed the talks. The size and structure of any deal could still change before anything is filed.

Why Now

Formlabs last raised money in May 2021. A $150 million Series E led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 doubled its valuation to $2 billion at the time. Deep Nishar, senior managing partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, joined the board as part of that round.

Since then, the company has made several moves that governance watchers read as preparation for a public listing. Earlier this year, Formlabs added Rob Willett to its board. Willett is the former chief executive of Cognex, a machine-vision company that has traded on Nasdaq since 1989. He replaced Carl Bass, the former Autodesk CEO who had sat on Formlabs' board since 2017.

The SoftBank Factor

SoftBank reported a strong first quarter in 2026, with net income of 347.3 billion yen, about $2.2 billion. A large portion of that came from gains on its Intel stake, which it built for roughly $2 billion in mid-2025 as Intel shares climbed nearly 400% through 2026.

That windfall gives SoftBank more flexibility to shepherd portfolio companies toward exits. Formlabs, a profitable hardware maker rather than a speculative AI bet, is exactly the kind of asset a firm flush with cash might want to take public while investor appetite for tech listings remains strong.

Market Context

Formlabs is not alone in testing the IPO window. Switch, a data center operator, is reportedly targeting a listing that could value it at up to $80 billion by year end. Nscale, a London-based AI infrastructure builder, hired Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan and is targeting a $25 billion IPO valuation after closing a $2 billion Series C in March.

Formlabs' potential $500 million raise looks modest next to those numbers, and that is the point. It is not chasing AI infrastructure demand directly. It makes stereolithography and selective laser sintering printers used by dentists, jewelers, and product designers to prototype and manufacture physical parts. If AI-driven product cycles are pushing more companies to iterate on hardware faster, Formlabs sits closer to that demand than most software names filing to go public this year.

What It Means for the Industry

A successful Formlabs listing would mark one of the most significant public debuts for a pure-play 3D printing company in recent years. It would give investors a direct way to bet on the spread of additive manufacturing beyond industrial aerospace and defense applications into smaller professional and consumer workflows.

The company has not set a timeline, and the talks could still fall apart. But the board reshuffle, the SoftBank windfall, and a market suddenly willing to underwrite hardware listings again have created conditions that did not exist even twelve months ago.