Tesla eyes $2.9b China solar tools to build 100 GW capacity in US

Tesla is in talks to buy US$2.9 billion of equipment from Chinese suppliers to make solar panels and cells, as Elon Musk aims to add 100 gigawatts of solar capacity in the United States.

Reuters sources named Suzhou Maxwell Technologies and other Chinese firms, including Shenzhen S.C New Energy Technology and Laplace Renewable Energy Technology, as potential suppliers.

Some equipment – such as screen-printing production lines – would require export approval from China’s commerce ministry.

The sources said the companies were told to deliver the equipment before this autumn, which falls in September until December in the Northern Hemisphere.

Meanwhile, two sources said the shipments would be to Texas.

Tesla job postings say it aims to deploy 100 GW of solar manufacturing from raw materials on American soil before the end of 2028, and Musk said solar could meet US electricity needs.

US tariffs target cheaper Chinese panels, but machinery was excluded from tariffs by the Biden administration in 2024.

That exemption has also been extended by the Trump administration as Washington seeks a domestic solar supply chain.

🔗 Source: Reuters

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Tesla has been talking with a Chinese supplier that leads in high-efficiency solar equipment

Suzhou Maxwell Technologies holds about 70% of the global market for full-line heterojunction (HJT) solutions as of December 2025 1.
HJT is a high-efficiency solar-cell manufacturing technology that combines crystalline and amorphous silicon to raise output, including conversion rates above 25% plus lower degradation 2.
The company plans to invest 3.5 billion yuan ($506 million) in a factory that builds machines for perovskite solar cells (an emerging type of solar cell), including for tandem cells, a next-generation design with certified lab efficiencies reaching 34.85% 3 4.
Its track record includes supplying large solar producers such as Tongwei plus LONGi 1.

U.S. solar manufacturing still leans on Chinese machinery

Tesla’s possible purchase puts a constraint in view for the U.S. push to build a domestic solar supply chain since much of the advanced manufacturing equipment comes from Chinese suppliers 5.
U.S. tariffs have targeted Chinese solar panels for years, yet the Biden administration excluded solar manufacturing equipment from tariffs in 2024, plus the Trump administration extended that exclusion, according to the report 5.
This dependence ties back to a thin upstream industrial base since in 2022 the U.S. had no active manufacturing capacity for silicon ingots, wafers, or silicon cells 6.
U.S. clean energy targets plus factories backed by policies like the Inflation Reduction Act (a major U.S. climate and industrial policy law) still depend on China’s established industrial ecosystem 6.