Editor's note: The 3D-printing megatrend will reach every corner of the globe...

Not long ago, this innovative technology was a tiny market – and most industries didn't fully appreciate its potential. But Matt McCall, editor of The McCall Report, says COVID-19 was an inflection point for the groundbreaking 3D-printing megatrend...

In short, 3D printing is entering the mainstream. Over the next decade, Matt believes its uses will spread far beyond mitigating supply-chain delays. And as this trend continues to gain steam, early investors have the potential to earn outsized gains.

In today's Masters Series, originally from the February issue of The McCall Report, Matt discusses how 3D printing will change the way we live and work... details some of the many industries it's changing today... and reveals why this market has massive upside potential...

The Many Applications of This World-Changing Megatrend

By Matt McCall, editor, The McCall Report

Do you remember the TV show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition?

The series found deserving families in the United States that were in dire need of new homes. A massive crew of homebuilders and volunteers swarmed in to rebuild these families' homes – and they often did it in incredibly short turnaround times.

"Short," as in the family was sent to Disney World for a week and came home to a new or totally renovated house.

If you've tried to do any sort of renovation – let alone attempt to build an entire house – since the pandemic, you know that short turnaround times are no longer possible. A friend of mine was just given a quote for new windows for her home. She was told the soonest that installation could begin was 16 weeks.

And of course, it's not just windows. Global supply-chain issues have created massive headaches for the home-improvement world. Appliances are back-ordered. Materials are stuck on ships somewhere at sea. And lumber prices are through the roof.

So do we wait it out and hope that supply issues are fixed quickly... or do we look for another solution?

Considering that we live in a world of innovation, it shouldn't be a surprise that scientists have come up with a way to build homes much faster...

As I explained yesterday, this is where 3D printing comes in.

Habitat for Humanity built its first 3D-printed home in the United States late last year. It was a 1,200-square-foot house in Virginia with three bedrooms and two bathrooms created in just 12 hours. And as you can see, it looks no different than any other suburban house...

Homes created using 3D printing are more cost-effective as well. According to Business Insider, it costs about $25,000 to build a 350-square-foot tiny home. But in March 2019, 3D-printing company ICON constructed a similarly sized home for $10,000 – and it took only 48 hours. The company called it "the first permitted, 3D-printed home in America."

The prototype printer used to build that home was running at 25% of its full speed. At its fastest, ICON said it could print a 600- to 800-square-foot home for $4,000 in less than 24 hours. And it could make a 2,000-square-foot home for around $20,000.

Of course, 3D printing something as large as a house isn't quite like printing out a sheet of paper from your home computer.

It's an automated process that's almost like carving something out of concrete (or other materials) – where layers are placed on top of one another in a predetermined pattern. Human labor is required to assemble pieces and finish details.

As I explained yesterday, 3D printing isn't exactly a new thing. You've likely been hearing about it for years. But this trend is just now starting to become mainstream – and it has massive world-changing implications. In today's Masters Series, I'll touch on several industries that are undergoing massive changes thanks to this increasingly popular technology.

Let's get started...

Next-generation 3D-printing technology is changing the manufacturing industry, the global supply chain, and the way things are made.

Yesterday, I explained how 3D printing was used to address a shortage of respirator valves in Italian hospitals at the height of the pandemic. The technology also allowed for the quick production of nasal swabs, masks, protective gear, and more.

But that's far from its only application. In the future, everything from medical supplies to entire homes to jet engines and auto parts will be created using 3D-printing technology.

Today, I want to continue that conversation – because there's so much more to this technology than just large manufacturing projects. Over the next decade, 3D printing will ultimately change the way we live and work.

According to ARK Invest, the 3D printing and robotics trend could grow at a 56% annual rate. That would increase its enterprise value from a mere $70 billion in 2020 to $6 trillion by 2030.

That kind of growth requires the mass adoption of 3D printing across a variety of large industries. It's a big lift – and nothing is certain in this world – but I believe scaling up at that magnitude is achievable.

Take, for example, electric vehicles ("EVs"). The current manufacturing facilities of the largest automakers around the world aren't designed to build EVs. They need to be either retrofitted or totally rebuilt, which will require a lot of money and time.

Because the race to become the leader in the future of EVs has already begun – and it's a very close race, at that – the automakers don't have the luxury of time. Therefore, they must turn to alternatives such as 3D printing to speed up the adoption of EV manufacturing lines.

The benefits of 3D printing to automakers go beyond just faster times to market. There's also the ability to create lighter and more durable parts that will extend battery life. The lighter the vehicle, the less power needed to propel it... and the longer a battery will last. Considering battery life is one of the EV industry's biggest concerns today, 3D printing can make an instant difference.

But that's just scratching the surface...

The transportation industry is far from the only sector being disrupted by the continued expansion of 3D printing. The technology has its tentacles in nearly every corner of the world... and every aspect of the global supply chain.

So let's talk about another... health care.

3D printing is already making a big difference in the health care space. But just like with transportation and EVs, we're only just starting to see its real-world potential.

The future of health care will center around personalized and precision medicine. Instead of the current one-size-fits-all treatment process, medicines will be tailored to the specific patient – targeting specific symptoms and specific genetic makeup.

Using CT and MRI scans, pre-operative 3D printing can help determine the proper course of treatment. For example, in 2016, an Irish doctor named Michael Eames created a 3D-printed model of a patient's forearm before surgery, and what he saw was completely different than what he had expected.

As a result, he chose a less-invasive procedure that led to reduced costs, a shorter surgery time, and a decreased rehabilitation schedule.

As I mentioned earlier, 3D printing was also used heavily at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was an inflection point for the technology. With equipment shortages and a halted supply chain, hospitals and manufacturers around the world were forced to embrace 3D printing. This expedited the acceptance of the trend.

Of the top 50 medical-device companies, more than 90% are currently using 3D printing in some capacity. And that will only continue to increase in the years ahead.

One of the most exciting developments within health care will be the 3D printing of customized prosthetic limbs. Last year, scientists from the Israel Institute of Technology developed a fully automated production line that can 3D print affordable prosthetics.

This market remains tiny today compared with the overall size of the health care industry. That has a lot to do with how early-stage the concept is... but it also suggests a massive amount of upside potential from here.

And there's another big breakthrough that I believe will go mainstream during the "Roaring 2020s" – what I believe will be the greatest decade in the stock market's history.

I'm talking about 3D-printed human organs. Considering approximately 17 people die every day waiting for an organ transplant, think of the possibilities this will create!

There are obvious issues with organ transplants today – from the removal of the donor's organ to transportation time to the surgery itself. A lot can go wrong. But being able to 3D print an organ at a specific location and time will eliminate a lot of those variables, and therefore save tens of thousands of lives.

Just like the prosthetic-limbs market, the market for 3D-printed human organs is also small. But most research firms view the next 10 to 15 years as the runway for annual growth of about 20%. That suggests big potential profits during the Roaring 2020s.

And it brings me to the next application of 3D-printing technology...

Last week, I saw something incredible. I watched a rocket launch into the sky while I was walking down the street near my apartment in Florida. Turns out, I had caught a glimpse of a SpaceX rocket launch.

Being the curious guy that I am, I started reading more about the Elon-Musk-backed company and learned that it has been using 3D printing to manufacture rocket parts since 2014.

Outside of the ability to produce cheaper and better rockets here on Earth, the space industry also provides the opportunity to actually print while in orbit. Several projects have already taken place on the International Space Station.

There are currently several main areas of focus when it comes to 3D printing in space...

As you can imagine, it's not easy to get spare and replacement parts in space. But 3D printing addresses that problem by allowing astronauts to produce those parts, important or not, on site. (That's a major plot point of Netflix's Stowaway, the 2021 film starring Anna Kendrick – if you're interested. An on-site 3D printer would have made the movie... well, not as exciting.)

Astronauts themselves are a focus as well. Some missions have the potential to last months or even years, and it's impossible to predict what kind of care these folks might need while in space. For example, they might need to quickly create something for an urgent medical procedure that would otherwise take days, weeks, or even years to be sent from Earth.

Then there's the concentration on being able to 3D print in a zero-gravity environment. This will allow for the testing of certain types of printing that aren't currently available on Earth.

And finally, 3D-printing technology will be in high demand whenever we construct the first colony on Mars. Elon Musk's goal is to land humans on the red planet by 2026 – although a full-fledged colony may not be possible until years later.

Ultimately, space travelers will need to be able to print food, industrial products, organs, and so much more. It's still far off, but the reality of it gets closer and closer as innovations continue.

As NASA's 3D-printing team says... "Make It, Don't Take It!"

Speaking of food, the strides that have been made to fight global poverty over the last few decades have been impressive. But there are still too many people – many of them children – who don't have enough to eat.

While our ability to use 3D printing to produce food is in the early stages... it's on its way.

Restaurants are already using 3D-printing machines to make masterpieces. See the picture below of an egg on carpaccio that was created with 3D printing by Spanish Chef Carles Tejedor...

But the bigger opportunity is when the technology can be made available to the masses. It could ultimately lead to the eradication of malnutrition.

According to Quince Market Insights, the global 3D-printed food market was worth a mere $87.2 million in 2021. Over the course of the decade, that figure is expected to accelerate by nearly 50% annually to create a niche investment opportunity. You can bet my eyes are peeled.

At the end of the day, 3D printing is here. It has been around for a long time, but it's only just now starting to become a part of our everyday lives. As I mentioned earlier, this is what we call an inflection point.

The supply-chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have led to an acceleration of the 3D-printing megatrend. By the end of the Roaring 2020s, it could be sitting on an enterprise value of $6 trillion.

That makes now the time to start building your 3D-printing portfolio. Don't miss out on the massive upside potential from this emerging megatrend.

Here's to the future,

Matt McCall

Editor's note: Matt says 3D printing could become a multitrillion-dollar market by the end of the decade. But if you're nervous about investing in tech stocks after one of the worst starts to the year in decades, he has a message for you...

On Tuesday, February 22, at 2 p.m. Eastern time, Matt is hosting an "emergency briefing" to detail the critically important setup he's seeing in stocks today. Put simply, he'll share his thoughts on the current market uncertainty... and exactly what you should be doing with your money to profit. Plus, he'll explain why we could be looking at one of the single best buying opportunities of our lifetimes. Reserve your spot for free right here.