Stratasys’ new Minnetonka campus is not just another corporate ribbon-cutting. On Thursday it turned into a rare bipartisan lovefest, as the 3D-printing heavyweight pitched its gleaming site as a key player in national-security manufacturing. At the grand opening, lawmakers and company leaders pointed to industrial printers already churning out parts for aerospace, defense, and commercial customers. The move pulls much of Stratasys’ Minnesota operations into two buildings on the UnitedHealthcare campus, staking out a local stronghold for advanced manufacturing.
U.S. Reps. Betty McCollum, Brad Finstad, and Kelly Morrison joined company founders and executives for the ceremony, according to drew bipartisan support. Stratasys President Rich Garrity told the crowd the Minnetonka building has “over 100 industrial printers running 24/7,” many of them currently producing drone components, the outlet reports. Speakers cast the event as both a regional economic win and a sign that Minnesota manufacturers are lining up to meet federal sustainment needs.
Serving the defense industry
Stratasys Direct, the company’s parts-on-demand division, was tapped for the U.S. Department of Defense’s Joint Additive Manufacturing Acceptability (JAMA) IV Pilot Parts Program, a federal push to speed qualification and deployment of 3D-printed parts, according to a company press release on Business Wire. The release notes that Stratasys Direct ships more than 100,000 parts each year to defense customers, and company officials say programs like JAMA should help certified parts move into operational use more quickly. Executives argue that having local printing capacity cuts repair lead times and bolsters supply-chain resilience for platforms in the field.
Numbers and outlook
Stratasys reported $551.1 million in revenue and a GAAP net loss of $104.3 million for 2025 in its annual filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In a March earnings release, the company outlined a 2026 outlook calling for full-year revenue of $565 million to $575 million and a GAAP net loss of $67 million to $83 million, while still expecting positive operating cash flow, according to the company’s investor materials. Leaders also point out that aerospace and defense delivered double-digit annual revenue growth in 2025, a trend they say backs the Minnetonka build-out.
Officials at the event leaned hard on the local angle: consolidating into two buildings on the UnitedHealthcare campus is being promoted as a way to add jobs and expand R&D capacity in the area, economic win for the region reports. The company has also drawn outside capital, with a February 2025 announcement that Fortissimo Capital would invest $120 million and boost its stake to roughly 15.5%, a transaction described in a Stratasys press release on Business Wire. That combination of private money and federal program participation gives executives fresh talking points for both lawmakers and prospective customers.
For Minnetonka, the pitch was simple enough: advanced additive manufacturing is moving from lab scale to production scale, and local leaders want procurement and certification rules to keep up. Lawmakers and Stratasys officials said they intend to push for policies that clear the way for broader use of 3D-printed parts in sustainment and repair work.
