Bambu Lab to enter Sam's Club; two companies raise funding; multiple regions add AM to 15th Five-Year Plans; Q1 3D printer output up 54%

Bambu Lab is set to become the exclusive 3D printer partner for Sam's Club across all 64 stores in China, with the rollout expected from late April to early May 2026. The partnership targets home-consumer scenarios, marking a significant retail expansion for the Shenzhen-based company. Separately, two Chinese AM firms closed funding rounds: Hangzhou-based Second Life Technology raised a double-digit million RMB round from individual investor Yu Zhengxuan for AI+3D printed figurines and world model development, while Zhongshan-based Zhongde Technology completed a double-digit million RMB A+ round led by Skyworth Capital, with Yuanhe Yuanchuang and Shuimu Wutong Venture Capital participating, for electrochemical 3D printing of vapor chambers. On the policy front, Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Guangzhou Liwan have all formally included additive manufacturing in their 15th Five-Year Plan priorities. National Bureau of Statistics data shows Q1 2026 3D printer output grew 54% year-on-year, and the National Medical Products Administration published a new industry standard for medical-grade PEEK powder for laser PBF, effective March 2027. BLT achieved batch production of micro force sensors via metal AM, printing 972 units per run at 0.05mm precision.

Bambu Lab's Sam's Club deal is the most consequential retail channel play in Chinese desktop AM since the company's own rise. It mirrors the consumer-electronics titanium pull-through pattern seen in Apple's supply chain, but here the channel is a membership warehouse club, not a phone OEM. The exclusive arrangement gives Bambu Lab direct access to a high-income, non-hobbyist demographic that has not yet been a primary buyer of FDM/FFF printers. This moves the company beyond its existing online and flagship-store footprint, and beyond co-branded spaces with Shangpin Zhaipin and Meland. For the broader industry, the 54% Q1 output growth and the inclusion of AM in three provincial-level Five-Year Plans confirm that Chinese AM is in a policy-accelerated expansion phase, consistent with the Chinese localization arc pattern. The PEEK powder standard is a structural market redefinition event for medical-dental AM, lowering qualification uncertainty for implant-grade polymer PBF.

From an expert standpoint, the Sam's Club deal is a distribution test, not a technology breakthrough. Bambu Lab must now prove it can manage retail inventory, returns, and in-store demo logistics at scale, which is a different operational muscle than direct-to-consumer e-commerce. The PEEK standard, while three years from enforcement, gives Chinese medical device OEMs a clear regulatory target for qualification, potentially accelerating adoption in orthopedics and spinal implants. The two funding rounds are modest and niche-specific; Second Life's AI+figurine play is a small bet on personalization, while Zhongde's electrochemical approach to vapor chambers is an early-stage process play that needs to demonstrate cost parity with conventional wicking structures before it matters for energy or consumer electronics.