Tesla is looking to buy equipment worth US$2.9 billion for manufacturing solar panels and cells from Chinese suppliers including Suzhou Maxwell Technologies (蘇州邁為科技), two people familiar with the matter said, as chief executive officer Elon Musk aims to add 100 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity in the US.
Musk said in January that solar power could meet all of the electricity needs of the US — including the ever-increasing demand from a growing number of data centers.
Job postings on Tesla’s Web site said it aims to deploy 100GW of “solar manufacturing from raw materials on American soil before the end of 2028.”
Photo: Reuters
Suzhou Maxwell Technologies, the world’s biggest producer of screen-printing equipment used to make solar cells, is among the leading candidates to supply machinery for the project and has been seeking export approval from China’s Ministry of Commerce, according to the two people and a third person.
The sources declined to be named because the information is not public.
Other potential suppliers include Shenzhen S.C New Energy Technology (深圳市捷佳偉創能源) and Laplace Renewable Energy Technology (拉普拉斯可再生能源科技), the first two people said.
Some of the estimated 20 billion yuan (US$2.9 billion) of equipment, including screen-printing production lines, would require export approval from Chinese regulators, according to the people.
It was not immediately clear how much of the equipment would require approval or how long it would take.
The Chinese companies were told to deliver the equipment before this autumn, the three people said, with two saying it would be shipped to Texas.
Musk plans to build the solar capacity mainly for use by Tesla, although some would be used to power SpaceX satellites, the people said.
The potential order highlights one issue for the US as it looks to reduce its dependence on China — reviving US manufacturing still requires some degree of trade with the world’s second-largest economy.
An order from Tesla would mark a big boost for Chinese producers of solar manufacturing equipment, which have struggled with weak demand because of a domestic production glut.
Meanwhile, the US solar market is heavily protected by tariffs aimed at curbing imports of cheaper panels and cells from China and Southeast Asia, where many Chinese producers operate subsidiaries.
However, solar manufacturing equipment was excluded from tariffs by former US president Joe Biden in 2024 at the urging of US solar panel makers who argued they had nowhere else to buy the machines needed to set up domestic factories. That exemption has been extended by US President Donald Trump, and the US has been pushing to create its own solar supply chain to reduce its dependence on Chinese companies.
Musk has criticized tariff barriers as making the economics of deploying solar in the US “artificially high,” when the country is facing a critical power shortage driven by a surge in demand from artificial intelligence data centers and manufacturing.
Setting up 100GW of solar manufacturing in a couple of years would be a staggering feat, and Musk is known for making big promises on ambitious timelines that often do not pan out.
Overall, the US had 1,300GW of capacity to generate electricity as of 2024, according to a report published last year by the American Public Power Association. Out of that, only 10 percent, or 135GW, was solar-powered.
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