MyMiniFactory acquires Thingiverse from Ultimaker, expanding to nearly 10 million users

MyMiniFactory announced on February 12, 2026 that it has acquired 100% of Thingiverse from Ultimaker, folding the long-running file-sharing site into MyMiniFactory’s SoulCrafted platform and bringing roughly eight million Thingiverse users into MyMiniFactory’s ecosystem. The company framed the move as both a scale play and a statement about creative ownership, citing a combined-platform ambition Romain Kidd described in press copy as nearing 10 million users.

The acquisition comes with a promise to preserve Thingiverse’s open-sharing culture while adding monetization tools. MyMiniFactory provided public messaging that included the line, "Free models on Thingiverse will remain free. Going forward, I hope new objects added to Thingiverse generally remain to be free, with the option for people to give to the creators, as they deem appropriate. If you want to be a paid creator, then upload your designs to MMF, and leave Thingiverse as a free resource. Thingiverse was a good entry point to find free stuff, you want to add ways to earn money and it won't be MMF 2.0? And maybe allow the creator to publish the same model on both sites so that people who get it for free and want to support the creator can then buy it on mmf. My hope is that Thingiverse will stay a free stl site for the most part. If I have free stuff that I posted on Thingiverse, will it be linked to my MyMiniFactory account? 'Free models on Thingiverse will remain free.' @tdcagle: MMF handles free content way better than Thingiverse anyway."

MyMiniFactory positioned the deal as a defense of human creators in an era of AI-generated content. Romain Kidd, identified as the new CEO of Thingiverse in the press copy, said, "Every major content platform is now flooded with AI-generated material, and creators are paying the price. This acquisition is our answer: a combined platform of 10 million users where human creativity is the product, not the training data." Rees Calder, identified as the new CMO of Thingiverse, added, "We’ve paid out $100 million to creators without venture capital subsidies or ad revenue."

Scale claims across outlets vary and raise concrete reconciliation questions for creators. Tom’s Hardware and TechRadar report Thingiverse’s archive contains about 2.5 million "things," while Finance/Yahoo’s press copy describes "Thingiverse’s 6 million-plus design library." Sources uniformly place the Thingiverse user base around eight million but note MyMiniFactory’s own messaging projects the combined network to approach 10 million.

Operational details are scheduled to follow as MyMiniFactory folds Thingiverse into SoulCrafted, a platform introduced in 2025 that emphasizes curated, human-made collections and creator economics. Tom’s Hardware reports monetization features will arrive "once the infrastructure is stabilized," and the combined MyMiniFactory and Thingiverse team scheduled a live Q&A for February 17 at 5pm UTC to outline next steps.

MyMiniFactory has public track record claims of creator payouts and commercial models: multiple outlets repeat that MMF has distributed over $100 million to independent 3D printing creators. The acquisition ties those commercial claims to Thingiverse’s archival scale and raises specific operational questions creators will watch for, account linking, licensing continuity for existing Thingiverse uploads, and the mechanics of publishing the same model on both platforms while preserving free access.

Expect the immediate post-acquisition window to focus on clarifying the 2.5 million versus 6 million design counts, precise user metrics, the timeline for monetization on Thingiverse, and the platform’s enforcement approach for AI-generated or non-printable content.