SpaceX Aims to Build 10-Gigawatt Solar Factory Near Austin

By Kara Carlson and Mark Chediak (Bloomberg) -- SpaceX is planning to build a massive, 10-gigawatt solar manufacturing facility near Austin as part of Elon Musk’s ambition to power artificial intelligence data centers in space. The facility in Bastrop, Texas, will include two floors that each would make five gigawatts of solar cells, according to permit filings submitted to Bastrop County and obtained by Bloomberg News. The documents appear to be part of SpaceX’s plan to double the size of its existing Bastrop facility this year to make solar cells along with new Starlink products, which the company detailed in its filing for an initial public offering on Wednesday. The Austin Business Journal reported earlier this month that SpaceX appeared to be building the over 1 million-square-foot solar manufacturing facility. Musk said at the World Economic Forum in January that he viewed solar power as a solution to the energy bottleneck constraining the build-out of artificial intelligence infrastructure. He announced an ambitious goal for both Tesla and SpaceX each to build 100 gigawatts per year of solar manufacturing capacity in the US over the next three years, an amount that would dwarf current domestic levels. SpaceX and Tesla didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Bloomberg News reported in February that Tesla was scouting multiple sites across the US to start making solar cells. The US has imposed steep tariffs on solar imports from China and Southeast Asian nations after domestic manufacturers filed complaints about unfair trade practices. First Solar Inc. is the nation’s biggest solar maker with an annual domestic production capacity of about 14 gigawatts for its thin-film technology. Overall, the US now has the capacity to make more than 60 gigawatts of solar panels a year, although the bulk of those are assembled with silicon-based cells that are made overseas, according to a report released Thursday by American Clean Power Association, a trade group. There are just three domestic silicon cell facilities active, the report showed. Noah Cowles, a director of solar production at SpaceX, said the company is constructing “one of the world’s most advanced solar cell factories” in Bastrop, Texas, in a recent LinkedIn post. SpaceX is hiring engineers for the factory, the post said. Separately, Tesla has posted several job openings for a solar manufacturing facility near Houston in Brookshire, Texas, where the company is also planning to build Megapack batteries. The plans for the plant, first reported by Electrek, come as Tesla expects to rapidly increase spending this year to more than $25 billion. In April, on a call with investors, Tesla Chief Financial Officer Vaibhav Taneja noted the company had already started placing orders for solar manufacturing equipment. But on Thursday, the New York Times reported that the Chinese government has prevented Chinese supplier Suzhou Maxwell Technologies from exporting high-end solar manufacturing equipment to Tesla. The report said Musk hoped to loosen the issue during his recent visit with the Trump administration, but it was unclear if he was successful. This month, SpaceX is also pursuing an enterprise zone designation for its Bastrop site, a label that would make it eligible for certain tax refunds. The area is also home to Musk’s tunneling venture, the Boring Company, an xAI facility and a handful of amentities for employees, including a bodega, school and company-owned housing.