Musk sparks market frenzy: 20 billion yuan Chinese photovoltaic order—what exactly is being bought?

March 20—According to foreign media reports, Tesla plans to procure solar panels and manufacturing equipment worth $2.9 billion (about RMB 20 billion) from Chinese suppliers, including Maiwei Technology. The order may involve several listed companies such as Maiwei Shares, Laplace, and Jiejia Weichuang. Due to these rumors, the photovoltaic equipment sector has surged across the board. As of the close on March 20, the photovoltaic sector overall strengthened, with equipment companies performing particularly well. Maiwei Shares and Jiejia Weichuang both soared over 9%. 01 Musk’s “Ground Game” In February 2026, news that Musk's team secretly visited a number of Chinese photovoltaic enterprises triggered heated discussion in the market. The focus included equipment, wafers, battery modules, and frontier technological directions—particularly heterojunction (HJT) and perovskite next-generation high-efficiency technologies, which are closely tied to Musk’s long-term strategic layout in space photovoltaics. We explained in detail in this previous article: "What Is the Key Focus of Musk’s Team During Their Secret Visit to Chinese Photovoltaic Companies?" (link). However, it’s necessary to clarify an easily confused issue: this Tesla procurement is mainly for ground production lines, not the same direction as the secret visits in February. Looking at the currently disclosed potential partners—Maiwei Technology, Jiejia Weichuang, and Laplace—all three are photovoltaic manufacturing equipment companies. Their product lines primarily focus on cell production processes suitable for mass production, such as screen printing, diffusion, coating, and full-line delivery. These support industrial-scale manufacturing needs for ground solar power stations or residential rooftop applications. Additionally, according to insiders, the equipment’s purpose is: after completion of the production lines, the finished solar panels will be mainly used by Tesla itself, and a portion will be supplied to SpaceX for satellite power. It should be clarified: mounting solar panels on satellites to power themselves is not the same as “space photovoltaics.” The latter refers to large-scale power generation in space and transmitting the electricity back to Earth—a complex energy system. Satellites carrying solar panels is simply their standard onboard power supply. Therefore, the core use of this procurement is mainly to serve ground energy systems, not “space orders.” 02 Musk’s “Energy Empire” Musk's team’s photovoltaic orders mainly fall into two chains: SpaceX (S-chain) and Tesla (T-chain), with planned application scenarios for space and ground, respectively. SpaceX’s photovoltaic needs primarily serve spacecraft, satellites, and space stations. The space environment imposes highly demanding requirements for photovoltaic technologies, requiring stable output under extreme temperature differences and strong radiation. Thus, requirements for conversion efficiency, lightweight design, and durability are far higher than for ground standards. Currently, SpaceX is primarily interested in next-generation high-efficiency technologies like heterojunction (HJT) and perovskite, and is still mainly at the stage of technology reserves and early layout. Tesla’s photovoltaic business focuses on ground applications, with product lines including Solar Roof, Solar Panel, Powerwall (home energy storage), and Megapack (grid-scale energy storage), providing integrated distributed photovoltaic and energy storage solutions across residential, commercial, and grid scenarios. Unlike the S-chain, the T-chain’s core demand is mass production capacity and cost control, requiring mature, stable, industrial-grade manufacturing equipment. The expansion of production capacity is already underway. According to Tesla’s official recruitment info, the goal is to reach 100GW of solar manufacturing capacity in the US by the end of 2028, starting from raw materials. Behind this, Musk is trying to build a fully independent, controllable, full-chain solar manufacturing system on US soil. This procurement from China is also a key step toward this goal. In the public eye, Tesla is a car manufacturer, but Musk’s ambitions for the company go far beyond car-making. As early as 2016, in "Tesla Master Plan Part Deux," Elon Musk clearly made “solar + energy storage” one of the company’s core strategies, proposing to build “an efficient, attractive, integrated energy system with storage capability.” In January 2026, Musk further broke down his vision for humanity’s energy problem with a “three-step” approach: First, use Tesla Megapack batteries to store idle electricity at night, improving grid efficiency; second, launch AI solar satellites into space to harness 24-hour sunlight; expected to require 8,000 launches annually to complete deployment; third, establish satellite factories on the Moon to locally manufacture satellites and launch them into orbit for larger-scale solar energy harvesting—he sees this as a true upgrade of human civilization’s energy system. From cars to energy storage, from ground solar to space satellites, Musk has a complete energy logic, forming a “self-reinforcing” closed loop. 03 In the New Energy Order, China’s Coordinates Cannot Be Ignored This $2.9 billion procurement order, from a macro perspective, is just a footnote in a much bigger story. Over the past decade, China has gone through a complete cycle in the fields of photovoltaic manufacturing and power batteries—from subsidy-driven growth to brutal shakeouts, and ultimately to global dominance. Around 2010, both industries began with heavy reliance on state subsidies, which drew huge capital and rapidly expanded capacity. This led to fierce price wars: PV module prices dropped by 90% over ten years, battery cost per kWh fell from thousands of yuan to less than a hundred. Many small and medium enterprises were eliminated, while survivors honed extreme cost control and rapid technological update capabilities. Leading companies like Tongwei, Longi, and CATL emerged from this harsh competition to establish their global dominance. S&P Global Clean Energy Tech PV chief analyst Hu Dan pointed out that in 2025 China will continue to lead the world in new PV installations, accounting for 57% of global total. Notably, in 2025, global new PV installed capacity will surpass coal for the first time, making PV the dominant force in new electricity installations worldwide—a historic leap closely tied to China’s rapid PV industrial development and scale. By the end of 2025, China's share of global capacity in raw silicon, wafers, cells, and modules will reach 96%, 96.2%, 91.3%, and 80.1% respectively. Of course, these are not numbers achieved merely through subsidies, but results repeatedly proved by the market after a long elimination race. This advantage is the result of enterprises perfecting extreme cost control and technological iteration, and it's the fundamental reason Musk chose Chinese suppliers even after price comparisons worldwide. From this angle, it's more than just a procurement—it’s a public endorsement. Musk used a $2.9 billion order to confirm an indisputable fact: in the global new energy industry, Chinese PV is irreplaceable. Musk’s choice, besides the unmatched advantage of China’s PV sector, is also partly due to structural challenges in US domestic energy. On one hand, the US has imposed multiple tariff layers on PV products, often stacking tariffs, thus erecting barriers and raising the cost of deploying solar in the US. Musk has publicly criticized that these tariffs have made solar artificially expensive and slowed clean energy adoption. Essentially, this is the US’s current PV industry reality: under high tariffs, directly importing solar cells and modules is costly. Compared to bearing tariff costs long-term, enterprises prefer to import Chinese equipment and build factories domestically, shifting costs to capital expenditure and leveraging local subsidies to optimize total cost structure. On the other hand, US domestic solar manufacturing capacity is insufficient. According to SEIA and Wood Mackenzie, the US saw a surge in new solar installations in 2024, bringing cumulative capacity to nearly 235.7GW. EIA predicts solar’s share of total US electricity generation will reach about 5%, making it a main driver of new power, but not yet a mainstay for base-load. Meanwhile, demand continues to rise. EIA notes US electricity consumption hit all-time highs in 2025 and is projected to climb further in 2026 and 2027, driven by booming AI data centers and manufacturing. Power shortages are now one of the most urgent issues facing the US. Under the triple pressures of supply shortage, demand surge, and tariff barriers, bypassing module tariffs and procuring Chinese equipment to build domestic capacity is currently the fastest and most economical breakthrough. When the world’s most ambitious energy strategist bets on Chinese manufacturing, that is the answer: after over a decade of elimination races, Chinese PV’s achievement is not just a ticket to the game—it is an unshakeable position at the core of the new global energy order, impervious to any external pressure. Source: Tencent Technology Risk warning and disclaimer: The market has risks and investments need caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice, nor does it consider the special investment goals, financial situation, or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article fit their particular situation. Invest at your own risk.