Overview
- Reuters reports Tesla is negotiating roughly $2.9 billion in solar panel and cell equipment purchases with Chinese suppliers including Suzhou Maxwell, Shenzhen S.C New Energy, and Laplace.
- Some machinery, including screen‑printing production lines, requires clearance from China’s commerce ministry, and the companies involved declined to comment.
- Suppliers were told to deliver before autumn, with two sources indicating the shipments would go to Texas for Tesla’s planned manufacturing footprint.
- The prospective deal supports Elon Musk’s goal of deploying 100 GW of U.S. solar manufacturing by end‑2028, mainly for Tesla’s operations with some output for SpaceX satellites.
- Solar manufacturing equipment is exempt from U.S. tariffs under a 2024 policy that the Trump administration extended, and shares of the named Chinese suppliers rose more than 7% after the report.