Velo3D Opens Forge 1: A 289,000 sq ft Metal 3D Printing Campus in Livermore

From Prototyping to Production

Metal additive manufacturing company Velo3D marked the opening of its new Livermore, California, production campus this week with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by customers, partners, suppliers, investors, and officials from the City of Livermore and the State of California. Named Forge 1, the facility is the company's answer to a simple but stubborn problem in industrial 3D printing: customers have qualified their parts, but they still can't get them made at scale.

A Campus Built to Scale

Forge 1 spans 289,000 square feet, including 270,000 square feet of manufacturing space with clear heights above 36 feet, designed to house metal 3D printing systems alongside machining and post-processing equipment for mission-critical components. Velo3D first detailed the campus in June, saying it would operate over 40 metal 3D printers at opening, with the capacity to eventually scale to more than 100 systems.

The site complements Velo3D's existing headquarters in nearby Fremont, California, which continues to handle R&D, applications engineering, process development, customer collaboration, prototyping, and qualification work. With both sites running, the company now covers the full process chain for aerospace and defense application development, qualification, and production.

Defense Demand Is the Engine

CEO Arun Jeldi framed the expansion around rising demand from customers who want to move beyond prototyping into real production runs. Velo3D has cited a string of recent contracts to support the buildout:

• A $32.6 million award from the US Department of War for prototyping and qualifying additive manufacturing components.
• A CRADA agreement with the US Army DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center to develop and qualify 3D printed assemblies for ground combat vehicles.
• A multi-year production contract worth $11.5 million with a US defense prime contractor.

A Domestic Manufacturing Bet

Velo3D timed the opening to America's 250th anniversary, framing the investment as part of a broader push to build domestic manufacturing capacity for the aerospace, defense, and energy sectors. For a company that spent years proving metal 3D printing could match the consistency of traditional manufacturing, Forge 1 is the clearest signal yet that the business case has shifted from "can it be done" to "how fast can we make it."

Why It Matters

The opening of a campus this size is a notable data point for the metal AM sector, which has spent the last decade oscillating between hype and consolidation. A purpose-built, 100-printer-capable production site backed by federal defense contracts suggests at least one major player believes serial production — not just prototyping — is where the money is heading next.