Desktop Metal filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with assets and liabilities totaling between $1B and $10B. At the time, they were liquidating foreign subsidiaries while still facing an ongoing legal dispute with another company. This happened only months after they were acquired by Nano Dimension under court order.

It was a lot of information to process, but it required taking a step back.

It wasn’t just a failure of one company; it was an indicator. Industrial 3D printing was maturing, and the emerging complexity started to look more complicated than previously thought.

We had been there before:

• Large capital, slow returns
• Complicated integration with little short-term pay-off
• Headlines about growth but less about operational wellness

There was still a bright future for additive manufacturing. It was being led not by the companies that were the most capitalized or most hyped, but by those building value — one project at a time.

The insight wasn’t that the vision failed. It was that in our industry, scale should come after stability, not the other way around.

By the way, at Smart Factory UAB, we have always done things differently. We operated on a smaller scale. We remained focused. We maintained a sustainable business model. Our clients didn’t want us to disrupt; they wanted us to deliver. 🤟