According to two people familiar with the situation, Tesla is trying to purchase $2.9 billion worth of equipment from Chinese vendors, including Suzhou Maxwell Technologies, in order to manufacture solar panels and cells. Elon Musk, the company’s CEO, wants to install 100 gigawatts of solar power in the US.
In January, Mr. Musk claimed that solar energy could supply all of the United States’ electricity demands, including the steadily rising need from an increasing number of data centers. According to job advertising on the Tesla website, the company wants to implement 100 GW of “solar manufacturing from raw materials on American soil before the end of 2028.”
According to the two individuals and a third, Suzhou Maxwell Technologies, the largest manufacturer of screen-printing equipment used to create solar cells, is one of the top contenders to provide equipment for the project and has been requesting export authorisation from China’s commerce ministry. Since the material is confidential, the sources declined to be identified.
According to the first two individuals, Shenzhen S.C. New Energy Technology and Laplace Renewable Energy Technology are further possible providers.
According to the persons, export approval from Chinese officials will be necessary for some of the estimated 20 billion yuan ($2.9 billion) worth of equipment, including screen-printing production lines. How much of the equipment would need to be approved and how long it would take were not immediately apparent.
According to the three people, the Chinese companies were instructed to deliver the equipment by this autumn, and two of them stated that it would be delivered to Texas. According to the people, Mr. Musk intends to develop the solar capacity mostly for Tesla, though it will also be used to power SpaceX satellites.
The possible order draws attention to a problem for the US in its efforts to lessen its reliance on China: trade with the second-biggest economy in the world is still necessary to revive American manufacturing.
Last month, Chinese media revealed that Tesla had visited a number of Chinese solar companies. For the first time, information on the companies involved in advance negotiations, the anticipated magnitude of possible purchases, the delivery schedule, and regulatory requirements are provided here.
Requests for comment from Tesla, China’s commerce ministry, Suzhou Maxwell, Shenzhen S.C. New Energy, and Laplace Renewable Energy were not answered by Reuters.
American gigaplant using Chinese machinery
Chinese manufacturers of solar manufacturing equipment, which have suffered from low demand due to a glut of domestic production, would greatly benefit from a Tesla order.
In the meanwhile, tariffs intended to reduce imports of less expensive panels and cells from China and Southeast Asia, where numerous Chinese manufacturers have operations, provide significant protection to the U.S. solar sector.
However, at the request of American solar panel manufacturers, who claimed they had nowhere else to purchase the equipment required to establish local plants, the Biden administration exempted solar manufacturing equipment from tariffs in 2024. The Trump administration has expanded this exception, and in an effort to lessen its reliance on Chinese businesses, the US has been working to establish its own solar supply chain.
In the face of a severe power shortfall brought on by an increase in demand from AI data centers and industry, Mr. Musk has blasted tariff obstacles as making the economics of installing solar in the US “artificially high.”
His solar aspirations stand in sharp contrast to President Donald Trump’s energy policies, which aim to increase the production of fossil fuels in the United States and have reduced federal subsidies for solar and wind projects, which he claims are expensive and unreliable.
For a brief period, Mr. Musk was employed by the Trump administration as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, which managed the widespread layoffs of federal employees in order to save costs.
According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. power consumption reached its second consecutive record high in 2025 and will continue to climb in 2026 and 2027.
It would be an incredible accomplishment to set up 100 GW of solar manufacture in a few years, yet Mr. Musk is notorious for making lofty claims on ambitious timeframes that frequently fall short.
According to a research released this year by the American Public Power Association, the United States had 1,300 GW of total capacity to produce energy as of 2024. Just 10%, or 135 GW, of total was solar-powered.
Tesla has been working to increase the number of locally sourced components in many areas. To keep costs down, it is still reliant on 400 suppliers from China. Additionally, sixty of them supply Tesla worldwide, including its EV factories in the United States.
As previously reported by Reuters, production preparations for Tesla’s Cybertruck and Semi models in the United States faced difficulties last year when component imports from China were halted due to a substantial tariff increase on Chinese goods imposed by the Trump administration.
