According to foreign media reports, Tesla is planning to build a large photovoltaic manufacturing plant at the Brookhill plant near Houston, Texas, according to people familiar with the matter. The plant will be co-located with the Megapack Energy Storage Super Plant, which is under construction.
It is reported that the Houston Brookhill plant is a vertically integrated plant, covering silicon ingots, wafers, batteries and components , and the overall capital investment of the project exceeds 2
. This will be the first clear landing signal for Tesla to achieve the goal of 100 GW photovoltaic manufacturing per year.
From the current signs, Musk's idea of photovoltaic empire is accelerating to become a reality, but behind this, Chinese photovoltaic enterprises should be more vigilant that Chinese photovoltaic enterprises may be being "stolen". Musk, who seems to be the "fan brother" of China's photovoltaic industry, may be becoming a strong rival of China's photovoltaic enterprises!
For the first time in public, Musk shared his bold idea about photovoltaics: launching an AI data center into space and planning to deploy a 100GW solar AI satellite in space. At the same time , solar energy is used to solve the energy problem of space computing power.
Then at the Davos Forum on January 22, 2026, Musk disclosed more details- SpaceX and Tesla will build a total of 200 GW/year photovoltaic capacity (100 GW each) in the United States within three years . Part of the capacity orientation service soon Tesla executives posted online to disclose the landing process of 100GW photovoltaic capacity, saying that the company is currently recruiting employees." In support of Musk's plan to " become the largest photovoltaic module manufacturer in the United States". A job posting for a solar manufacturing development engineer on Tesla's official website also shows that the company aims to "deploy 100GW solar manufacturing capacity from raw materials in the United States by the end of 2028". In
less than half a year, Musk's 200GW photovoltaic empire is rapidly moving from conception to reality. Tesla is ready
to
restart and expand. In fact, Musk's business empire is not new to the photovoltaic industry. People
familiar with Tesla may know that as early as 10 years ago, in 2016, Tesla entered the photovoltaic industry by acquiring SolarCity, the largest photovoltaic roof in the United States at that time. It also took over the photovoltaic manufacturing plant in Buffalo, New York , USA.
According to US media reports, the Buffalo photovoltaic plant was originally planned to become the largest solar manufacturing plant in the Western Hemisphere. After the acquisition, Tesla launched Solar Roof, a photovoltaic product that integrates photovoltaic power generation devices with roof design.
Initially, Tesla, a "photovoltaic novice", chose to cooperate with Panasonic to produce solar cells at the factory . However, due to lower than expected earnings and other reasons, Panasonic finally chose to end the cooperation in 2020, Tesla took over the full capacity of the Buffalo plant, forced to "stand on its own feet.".
In the years since then, the photovoltaic manufacturing business of the Buffalo plant has stagnated, transforming into the production of super charging pile components and undertaking the task of automatic driving data labeling.
Until early 2026, local media reported that Tesla planned to restart its Buffalo photovoltaic manufacturing plant, which is expected to expand to 10GW , in order to meet Musk's 100GW capacity target, according to people familiar with the matter. Meanwhile, according to Tesla's overseas official website, an all-black household photovoltaic module from Fabro Factory was launched earlier this year.
It can be said that Musk talks about space, photovoltaic, and the three-year 200GW "Great Leap Forward" expansion layout, which seems to be unrestrained, but in fact, he has been prepared step by step. Since the
end of last year, Musk has repeatedly praised the achievements of China's photovoltaic industry in public. Even on social media, he praised China's leading photovoltaic JinkoSolar TOPCon battery 27.
Musk's recognition of China's photovoltaic industry also fell on practical action. In late
January 2026, market sources said that Musk's team visited China, focusing on enterprises involved in space photovoltaic technology routes such as heterojunctions and perovskite stacks . Covering equipment, batteries and other links, visited a number of Chinese photovoltaic enterprises. Then
, in March, the media reported that Tesla planned to purchase battery and module production equipment from Chinese photovoltaic equipment companies at a total price of $ 2.9 billion (about 20 billion yuan), with the aim of promoting Musk's 100GW capacity blueprint.
According to media reports at that time, a Chinese photovoltaic equipment company confirmed the above news and disclosed that the contract scale reached GW level.
It is said that the equipment delivery is required to be delivered by this autumn and shipped to Texas .
On the one hand, looking at China from the perspective of global photovoltaics, China's achievements in photovoltaics, both in terms of technology and scale, are irreplaceable in a short period of time. Whether it is space computing power or photovoltaic ambition, Musk's grand vision is inseparable from the "strong support" of China's photovoltaic industry chain.
But on the other hand, the author believes that we need to be vigilant in the photovoltaic industry. A series of actions also show that Musk is changing from a prospective customer of China's photovoltaic industry to a competitor in the industry. He is quietly avoiding China's photovoltaic industry and building his own photovoltaic supply chain. According to
the above report, Tesla's Brookhill factory in Houston is a vertically integrated factory, covering the silicon wafer-battery-component link, which almost includes the whole production process of the main chain. According to the US policy, it is almost impossible for Tesla's silicon materials to use the silicon materials of Chinese photovoltaic enterprises.
According to South Korean media reports on April 15, Space X, another company owned by Musk, is negotiating with TerraSua, a Malaysian company owned by OCI Holding, a South Korean polysilicon company, to sign a polysilicon supply contract to support photovoltaic power supply for Space X data centers and satellites.
If the above information is true, in Musk's 200 GW photovoltaic target, China's photovoltaic main chain enterprises may be completely excluded .
On the other hand, in recent years, China's photovoltaic enterprises are strategically withdrawing from this market due to the changes in the Great America Act and the domestic environment of the United States.
For Musk, this may be a good opportunity to vigorously develop local photovoltaic. If the follow-up of the 200GW target is really successful, the strategic withdrawal of Chinese photovoltaic enterprises in the US market at this time may become a permanent exit .
To make matters worse, we may lose more than just the US PV market .
As we all know, the current photovoltaic technology is not only " that Musk is so eager to develop his own photovoltaic industry, but also to serve his "space program". Musk plans to launch a constellation of millions of satellites into an on-orbit data center, which will make the space-based Internet a reality by fully controlling all the energy of the sun.
It can be seen that photovoltaic is the core of Musk's space computing plan.
In photovoltaic manufacturing, production equipment is the most critical link, which not only determines the production efficiency and product quality of enterprises, but also is an important carrier of core technology of enterprises. This is why the U.S. government has excluded photovoltaic production equipment while imposing tariffs on photovoltaic products in China.
At present, China's photovoltaic production equipment is far ahead in the world, and the top 10 equipment manufacturers in the world are basically Chinese enterprises . This is also an important reason why Musk purchases Chinese production equipment.
If Musk succeeds in purchasing advanced production equipment in China, will he crack the core technology? Do domestic equipment enterprises have the confidence to hold on?
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