Quick Summary
Additional Context
An under-appreciated story driving the additive manufacturing (AM) industry this year has been the divergence between what’s driving the market in China and what’s driving it everywhere else. Let’s start with everywhere else, where we know the big driver has, yet again, been defense. That story is more than familiar enough.
Chinese AM companies, on the other hand, can’t stop boasting about what they’re doing for AI hardware and consumer electronics, with the latter category dominated by applications for smartphones. This may just be good marketing, but it’s effective. Moreover, the way that the Chinese government acts as a kind of board of directors for the collective Chinese economy means that companies in China have a knack for organizing around a specific goal and then scaling it into