From Jet Engines to Smiles: The S&P 500 Companies Built on 3D Printing
Apple, Amazon and Tesla get the headlines. But sit them aside, and you'll find a quieter roster of blue-chip giants whose products literally would not exist without additive manufacturing.
Ask most people to name a "3D printing company" and you'll hear Stratasys, 3D Systems, or maybe Bambu Lab. Here's the twist: none of the pure-play 3D printing companies are large enough to sit in the S&P 500. They're real businesses, but by market value they're minnows next to the index's giants.
So when someone asks which S&P 500 members "do 3D printing," the honest answer isn't the printer makers. It's the aerospace, medical, industrial and software titans that have quietly woven additive manufacturing into the parts you fly on, the implants in your spine, and the smile in your mirror. Below is the lineup — minus the three you already know about.
A quick definition. "Additive manufacturing" is just the industrial name for 3D printing — building an object up layer by layer from a digital file, instead of cutting it down from a solid block. The companies here mostly use metal and high-performance polymer printing, but the core idea is identical to the FDM and resin printing we run every day at Dreaming3D.
The companies printing things that fly
Aerospace was the first industry to bet real money on metal 3D printing, for one simple reason: in a jet engine, every gram you remove saves fuel for decades. Printing lets engineers consolidate dozens of welded parts into one lighter, stronger piece.
GE Aerospace
The PioneerThe poster child for production 3D printing. Every LEAP jet engine — the workhorse powering Boeing 737 MAX and Airbus A320neo families — carries roughly 19 printed fuel nozzles. Additive manufacturing collapsed a nozzle tip from about 20 brazed-together pieces into a single part that's around 25% lighter and far more durable. GE's larger GE9X engine takes it further, folding more than 300 conventional parts into just seven printed components.
RTX Corporation
Engines + DefenseRTX runs two heavyweight additive programs. Pratt & Whitney prints components for its geared turbofan engines, while Collins Aerospace and Raytheon use metal printing for brackets, heat exchangers and defense hardware where complex internal geometry is impossible to machine.
Boeing
AirframesBoeing has flown thousands of 3D-printed parts across its commercial and defense fleets, including printed titanium structural components on the 787 Dreamliner. Printing structural titanium — rather than carving it from billet — trims both weight and the eye-watering cost of aerospace-grade metal waste.
Lockheed Martin
Space + MissilesFrom satellite propulsion tanks to missile components, Lockheed leans on additive manufacturing for low-volume, high-complexity parts where traditional tooling would never pay off. In space hardware, where you build a handful of a kind, printing is often the only sane option.
Honeywell
Aero ComponentsHoneywell Aerospace has qualified printed metal parts for flight and uses additive manufacturing to keep aging aircraft fleets supplied with hard-to-source components — printing on demand instead of warehousing rare spares.
Same principle, local scale. Need a complex bracket, jig, or replacement part that's impossible to find? We print it.
Get a QuoteThe companies printing things that go inside you
Healthcare may be where 3D printing is most life-changing. Every human body is a different shape, and additive manufacturing is the only technology that can make a million different custom parts as cheaply as a million identical ones.
Align Technology
The Largest of AllThe maker of Invisalign runs what it calls the world's largest 3D printing operation. Every clear aligner is shaped over a printed mold, and each patient's mouth is unique — so the production line spits out a relentless river of one-off parts. Align has also acquired direct-printing technology (Cubicure) aiming to eventually print finished appliances without molds at all.
Stryker
Orthopedic ImplantsStryker's "AMagine" process prints titanium implants with a porous structure (branded Tritanium) that mimics real bone, so the body's own tissue grows into the implant. It's used in spinal cages and cementless knee and hip systems — the company has printed well over two million implants since 2013.
Medtronic
Spinal DevicesThe world's largest medical device company prints titanium spinal implants with engineered surface textures and porosity designed to encourage bone fusion — the same "let the body grow into it" strategy, from the other dominant player in spine.
The companies printing the machines — and the powder
This group is split between heavy-equipment makers using printing on the factory floor, a printer manufacturer hiding in plain sight, and the chemical giants supplying the raw materials everyone else feeds into their machines.
HP Inc.
Also Makes PrintersThe most overlooked name on this list. HP doesn't just print documents — its Multi Jet Fusion and Metal Jet platforms are full industrial production systems. Customers including John Deere, Volkswagen and Schneider Electric use HP machines to mass-produce functional polymer and metal parts at scale.
Caterpillar
Heavy EquipmentCaterpillar runs its own additive manufacturing facility to print prototypes, tooling and low-volume replacement parts — a huge advantage when a discontinued component would otherwise strand a multi-million-dollar machine in the field.
Deere & Company
Ag MachineryJohn Deere uses industrial 3D printing (including HP's platform) to develop and produce tractor components, cutting tooling time and unlocking lighter, more efficient part designs across its equipment lines.
3M
Materials Science3M plays the picks-and-shovels role: developing the resins, polymers and dental materials that printers actually consume — including materials used in the digital dentistry workflows that companies like Align helped create.
The companies that never touch a printer
Not every 3D printing player makes physical parts. Some provide the design tools and simulation horsepower without which none of the above would be possible.
Autodesk
Design SoftwareFusion 360 and Autodesk's generative-design tools let engineers describe a problem — loads, materials, constraints — and have the software generate organic, optimized shapes that only a 3D printer could ever build. It's the brain behind a lot of the parts on this page.
NVIDIA
Digital TwinsAn honorable mention: NVIDIA's simulation and "digital twin" platforms let manufacturers test, optimize and validate printed designs virtually before a single layer is laid down — increasingly part of the modern additive-manufacturing pipeline.
Three Alternative Headlines
- 12 S&P 500 Giants Quietly Running on 3D Printing (Apple, Amazon & Tesla Not Invited)
- The Blue-Chip Guide to Additive Manufacturing: S&P 500 Companies Leading 3D Printing
- You Already Own 3D Printing Stocks — The S&P 500 Companies Built on Additive Manufacturing
What this means for San Diego
Here's the encouraging part: the divide between "what GE does" and "what you can do" is narrower than ever. The exact same logic — layer-by-layer building, design freedom, and on-demand production with no tooling — scales all the way down to a desktop machine. A startup prototyping a medical device, a contractor needing a discontinued part, or a hobbyist with one perfect idea can tap the same technology that prints jet engine nozzles.
That's exactly what we do at Dreaming3D. We bring professional FDM and resin printing, 3D scanning and rapid prototyping to San Diego businesses and makers — the same principles as the index giants, sized for the rest of us.
FAQ
Are there any pure 3D printing companies in the S&P 500?
No. Pure-play additive manufacturing firms such as Stratasys, 3D Systems, Desktop Metal, Proto Labs and Materialise are too small by market capitalization to qualify for the S&P 500. The index members that depend on 3D printing are large aerospace, medical, industrial and technology companies that use additive manufacturing inside their products and factories.
Which S&P 500 company is the world's largest user of 3D printing?
Align Technology, the maker of Invisalign, operates what it describes as the world's largest 3D printing operation, producing more than one million custom orthodontic appliance parts every single day.
How does GE Aerospace use 3D printing?
GE Aerospace prints fuel nozzles for its LEAP jet engines. Each engine carries roughly 19 printed nozzles that consolidate around 20 welded pieces into one part, cutting weight by about 25% while improving durability. The company has shipped well over 100,000 printed nozzles.
Why don't Apple, Amazon and Tesla count here?
They were intentionally excluded from this guide because they're the obvious names. All three do use 3D printing — mostly for rapid prototyping and tooling — but the point of this article is to surface the less obvious S&P 500 companies whose core products genuinely depend on additive manufacturing.
Can I get the same 3D printing technology these giants use?
The same additive manufacturing principles — layer-by-layer FDM and resin printing, design freedom and on-demand production — are available locally. Dreaming3D in San Diego offers professional FDM and resin printing, 3D scanning and prototyping for businesses and individuals. Reach us at 858-342-6984 or dreaming3dprinting@gmail.com.
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From one-off prototypes to small production runs, Dreaming3D delivers professional FDM and resin 3D printing right here in San Diego.
Start Your Print →This article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not investment advice. Stock tickers and company examples are provided to illustrate use of 3D printing technology, not as a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Company programs, figures and S&P 500 membership change over time.