Musk's Move Ignites Market Action: $20 Billion China Solar Order, What Exactly is Being Purchased?

March 20 News, according to foreign media reports, Tesla is planning to purchase $2.9 billion (about 20 billion RMB) worth of solar panels and battery manufacturing equipment from Chinese suppliers, including Weimob Technology, involving several listed companies such as Weimob Co., Laplace, Jiejia Weichuang, and others.

Affected by rumors, the photovoltaic equipment sector experienced a surge across the board. As of the close on March 20, the photovoltaic sector overall strengthened, with equipment companies performing particularly well. Weimob Co. and Jiejia Weichuang both surged over 9%.

01 Musk’s “Ground Strategy”

In February 2026, news of Musk’s team secretly visiting multiple Chinese photovoltaic companies sparked market discussion, including equipment, silicon wafers, battery modules, and cutting-edge technologies. There was especially high interest in next-generation high-efficiency technologies like heterojunction (HJT) and perovskite, which are closely related to Musk’s long-term strategic layout in space photovoltaics. We explained this in detail in a previous article: “What is Musk’s team looking at during their secret visit to Chinese PV companies?”

However, it’s important to clarify a common confusion: Tesla’s current procurement mainly targets ground production lines, which are different from the directions involved in the February secret visits.

From the potential partner companies revealed so far—Weimob Technology, Jiejia Weichuang, and Laplace—all are photovoltaic manufacturing equipment companies. Their product lines mainly focus on large-scale mass production processes for solar cells, such as screen printing, diffusion, coating, and full-line delivery, serving industrial manufacturing needs for ground-based solar power stations or residential rooftops.

Additionally, according to informed sources, the equipment’s purpose—once the production lines are built—is to produce solar panels mainly for Tesla’s own use, with some panels also going to SpaceX for satellite power.

It’s important to clarify: Solar panels on satellites for self-power are not the same as “space photovoltaics.” Space photovoltaics refer to large-scale power generation in space and transmitting electricity back to Earth, which is a complex energy system; whereas satellite solar panels are standard power sources for satellites themselves.

Therefore, the core purpose of this equipment procurement is mainly to serve ground energy systems, not “space orders.”

02 Musk’s “Energy Empire”

Musk’s team’s photovoltaic orders are mainly divided into SpaceX (S chain) and Tesla (T chain), with application scenarios respectively in space and on the ground.

SpaceX’s photovoltaic needs mainly serve space applications such as spacecraft, satellites, and space stations. The space environment demands extremely stringent photovoltaic technology, requiring stable output under extreme temperature differences and high radiation. Therefore, the efficiency, lightweight design, and durability of batteries are far beyond ground standards. Currently, SpaceX focuses on next-generation high-efficiency technologies like heterojunction (HJT) and perovskite in the space photovoltaic field, and is still in the technology reserve and early layout stage.

Tesla’s photovoltaic business centers on ground applications, with main product lines including Solar Roof, Solar Panels, Powerwall (home energy storage), and Megapack (grid-scale energy storage systems), covering distributed photovoltaic and energy storage solutions for homes, businesses, and grids.

Unlike the S chain, the T chain’s core focus is on large-scale mass production capacity and cost control, requiring mature, stable industrial-grade manufacturing equipment. It has now entered a phase of substantial capacity expansion.

According to Tesla’s official recruitment information, the goal is to achieve 100 GW of solar manufacturing capacity in the U.S. by the end of 2028, starting from raw materials. Behind this goal is Musk’s attempt to build a fully autonomous, integrated solar energy manufacturing system in the U.S., from equipment to products. This Chinese equipment procurement is a key step toward that goal.

In the public eye, Tesla is seen as an automaker. But Musk’s positioning of the company has long gone beyond “car manufacturing.” As early as 2016, in “Tesla Master Plan Part Deux,” Musk explicitly included “solar + storage” as a core strategic focus, aiming to create an “efficient, attractive, and integrated energy system with storage.”

In January 2026, Musk further outlined his vision for human energy issues with a “three-step” plan: First, use Tesla’s Megapack batteries to store excess power at night and improve grid efficiency; second, launch solar AI satellites into space to maximize solar energy utilization with 24-hour sunlight, requiring about 8,000 launches over a year; third, establish satellite factories on the Moon, manufacturing satellites on-site and sending them into orbit to enable larger-scale solar energy capture—viewed as a true upgrade of human civilization’s energy system.

From automotive to energy storage, from ground PV to space satellites, Musk has a complete energy logic, forming a “self-reinforcing” closed loop.

03 In the New Energy Order, “China’s Coordinates” Are Unavoidable

This $2.9 billion procurement order, viewed from a broader perspective, is just a footnote in a larger story.

Over the past decade, China has experienced a full cycle in photovoltaic manufacturing and power batteries—from subsidy-driven growth, through brutal reshuffling, to global dominance.

Around 2010, both industries relied heavily on government subsidies, with massive capital influx leading to rapid capacity expansion. This was followed by fierce price wars, with PV module prices dropping 90% over ten years, and the cost per kWh of power batteries falling from thousands of yuan to less than a hundred. Many small and medium enterprises exited during the reshuffle, while surviving companies developed extreme cost control and rapid technological iteration. Leading firms like Tongwei, Longi, and CATL emerged victorious from this brutal competition, establishing global dominance.

S&P Global’s chief analyst of clean energy technology PV, Hu Dan, pointed out that by 2025, China’s new PV installed capacity will continue to lead globally, accounting for 57% of the total new global PV capacity. Notably, in 2025, global PV new capacity will surpass coal power for the first time, making PV the dominant new power addition worldwide. This historic shift is closely tied to China’s rapid development and large-scale contribution to the PV industry.

By the end of 2025, China’s capacity in silicon materials, wafers, cells, and modules accounted for 96%, 96.2%, 91.3%, and 80.1% of the global total, respectively. These figures are not just the result of subsidies but the outcome of a long elimination process validated repeatedly by the market. This advantage is built on companies’ extreme cost control and rapid technological iteration, which is also the fundamental reason Musk continues to choose Chinese suppliers after global price comparisons.

From this perspective, this isn’t just a procurement decision but a public endorsement—by placing a $2.9 billion order, Musk affirms an undeniable fact: In the global new energy industry landscape, China’s PV industry is irreplaceable.

Musk’s choice, beyond China’s inherent advantages in PV industry, also reflects the structural difficulties of the U.S. domestic energy sector.

On one hand, the U.S. has implemented multi-layered tariffs on PV products, often stacking tariffs, which raises the cost of deploying solar in the U.S. Musk has publicly criticized these tariffs, saying they artificially inflate the economics of solar energy and slow down the adoption of clean energy.

What Musk points out is essentially a current reality of the U.S. PV industry: under high tariffs, importing solar cells and modules directly results in high costs. Compared to bearing ongoing tariff costs, companies prefer to set up local factories using Chinese equipment, capitalizing on cost transfer to capital expenditure, combined with domestic subsidies, to achieve a more favorable overall cost structure.

On the other hand, U.S. manufacturing capacity remains insufficient. According to SEIA and Wood Mackenzie, U.S. new solar installations in 2024 surged significantly, reaching nearly 235.7 GW. EIA forecasts that solar will account for about 5% of U.S. electricity generation, becoming a main source of new power, but not yet a baseload.

Meanwhile, demand pressures continue to rise. According to EIA data, U.S. electricity consumption hit a record high for the second consecutive year in 2025, with further increases expected in 2026 and 2027—driven by AI data centers and manufacturing needs, making power shortages one of the most urgent issues.

Under the combined pressures of supply shortages, rising demand, and tariff barriers, bypassing module tariffs by directly procuring Chinese-made equipment and building local capacity has become the fastest and most economical way to break through.

When the world’s most ambitious energy strategists choose to bet on Chinese manufacturing, it’s itself an answer—China’s PV industry, after more than a decade of ruthless competition, has earned not just an entry ticket but a core position in the new global energy order that no external pressure can shake.

Source: Tencent Technology

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