With the development of aerospace technology, the performance requirements for key components have been gradually increasing. And single material components are no longer able to meet the performance demands under harsh operating conditions. Therefore, direct near-net shaping of dissimilar metal materials has become a key research direction in aerospace, defense, and military industries. Currently, conventional methods for preparing dissimilar metal materials still face challenges such as processing technique and material property compatibility, interface defect control, and difficulties in achieving integrated shaping. The use of additive manufacturing technology for the fabrication of dissimilar metal components has emerged as an important direction of development in the field of material forming and additive manufacturing. The research status of directed energy deposition, selective laser melting and electron beam melting in the additive manufacturing of dissimilar metals is presented in this paper. An overview and summary are provided with powder deposition processes, compatibility between high energy beam and powder layers, control of fully miscible alloy precipitation phases, joining of immiscible materials using high energy beam, and control of interface composition direction. Additionally, potential solutions to these challenges are proposed. Finally, the future development direction of dissimilar metal additive manufacturing in the aerospace field are prospected.