SpaceX has signed a contract with Germany’s Singulus Technologies for a turnkey production line to make heterojunction (HJT) solar cells for its Starmind satellites at its plant in Bastrop, Texas, Singulus announced on Nov. 10 ^[1]. The first line has an order volume of more than €60 million and is due in the first half of 2027, Singulus said in its nine-month results on Nov. 11 ^[2]. The contract is part of a strategic partnership under which Singulus plans to deliver multiple additional lines ^[1].
“Partnering with SINGULUS gives us a high-performance manufacturing path for solar cells for our Starmind satellites at our production facility in Texas,” said Mike Nicolls, SpaceX’s senior vice president of Starlink ^[1]. Singulus said production “will scale to support more than 100 GW of production equipment” as SpaceX speeds up satellite manufacturing in Bastrop ^[1]. It did not say whether that figure is annual or cumulative, or how many lines it implies ^[3]. Elon Musk was more specific on X: “SpaceX has ordered 100 GW/year of HJT solar manufacturing equipment from Singulus in Germany. This is for Starmind to create a sentient sun” ^[5].
The order is large relative to Singulus. The company, based in Kahl am Main near Frankfurt, reported revenue of €60.4 million for the first nine months of 2026, up about 36%, and order intake of €60.3 million over the same period ^[2]. It expects full-year revenue of about €83 million and confirmed that forecast ^[2]. Singulus will develop both the cells and the equipment to make them, combining wet chemistry, vacuum coating and thermal processing, said executive board member Lars Lieberwirth ^[1].
SpaceX is also a lender. Singulus said SpaceX provided “significant funding” in March, when the partnership began, and again in October ^[1]. On Oct. 21 Singulus took out a subordinated secured loan of about €22.75 million from the same technology partner and used it to repay all liabilities to Triumph Science and Technology Group, the Chinese company that had been its biggest customer and largest shareholder; Triumph agreed to sell its roughly 16.75% stake to a vehicle controlled by Singulus co-founder Roland Lacher ^[2][4]. Neither company disclosed the cell efficiency target or the capacity of the first line ^[3].
Starmind is SpaceX’s satellite design for running computing payloads on solar power in orbit; SpaceX specifications cited by Interesting Engineering give it a 75-meter wingspan and a payload drawing up to 250 kW at peak, with data sent to the ground over laser links to Starlink ^[5]. Musk said in January that SpaceX and Tesla were each working toward 100 GW a year of U.S. solar manufacturing capacity ^[3]. Other HJT cell projects in Texas are far smaller: Toyo plans a 1.5 GW factory and SEG Solar a 4 GW plant near Houston ^[3]. The order adds to SpaceX’s push to build its own supply chain, after its Terafab venture told Japanese toolmakers it wants 1 million wafers a month from 2032, as Nikkei reported (MLQ.ai coverage).
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