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On 10 November, the company and German equipment maker Singulus Technologies announced a supply contract under which Singulus will deliver a complete turnkey production line for heterojunction (HJT) solar cells. The line is meant for SpaceX’s Starmind satellites and established at its Bastrop, Texas facility. The first line is due in the first half of 2027, and the partnership covers further lines.
What was actually disclosed
The contract value was not disclosed. Singulus said it entered a strategic partnership with SpaceX in March 2026, and that SpaceX provided significant funding that month and again in October through a secured loan, again without mentioning the amounts involved. SpaceX framed the aim as creating a “durable option for advanced solar cell manufacturing” to support more than 100 GW of equipment.  Tesla had announced plans to build a 100 GW cell making plant in the US earlier this year, titled Project Crystal Sun. 
Starmind is SpaceX’s AI satellite programme. The satellites are designed to capture solar energy in orbit and run computing there, with results sent to Earth through Starlink. Production and deployment of thousands of satellites is planned to begin as soon as late 2027.A captive cell line puts a key input under SpaceX’s own roof.
Why heterojunction
SpaceX has not published its reasoning, but trade reports offer one. PVTime, a Chinese industry outlet, argues that HJT supports ultra-thin wafers of 50-70 microns, which cut weight and resist radiation, at a fraction of the cost of conventional space cells. Earlier, there were reports that SpaceX had started a shift away from gallium arsenide cells towards scalable silicon and perovskite. 
The news comes in the same week that produced a second signal on technology direction. US module maker Heliene and perovskite firm Caelux said their hybrid tandem module, combining perovskite glass with n-type silicon cells, is in commercial-scale production in Minnesota at efficiencies of 27 percent or more, with first deliveries slated for 2027.
What it means for the solar industry
There are two perspectives here. First, vertical integration is spreading beyond solar companies. SpaceX follows Tesla, whose reported $10.1 billion Project Crystal Sun cell plant filing we covered in August. Large technology buyers are deciding that cell supply is too important to outsource.
Second, Singulus is selling supply-chain security. It describes itself as aiming to be a leading Western provider of next-generation cell technology. That matters because equipment for HJT lines has been heavily Chinese,like most solar manufacturing equipment today. A buyer willing to fund a Western vendor creates demand for non-Chinese equipment, which Indian manufacturers building out cells may eventually find useful.
The Indian connect
India’s cell build-out is large and recent. The last revision of the cell ALMM list took listed capacity to 45 GW. TOPCon is the dominant choice in the new Indian capacity we track.
None of this means TOPCon is a mistake. Space is a tiny market next to terrestrial solar, and satellites value weight and radiation tolerance, not rupees per watt. SpaceX’s choice is not evidence about ground-mounted economics. But the manufacturing risk we raised in our July cover story, technology obsolescence, is easier to see when the best-capitalised new buyer in the cell market skips the incumbent technology and when a 27 percent tandem module reaches production.
The practical lesson is optionality. Indian cell makers locking in multi-gigawatt TOPCon lines should ask vendors about upgrade paths as well. Equipment contracts signed now will still be depreciating when 2027 module technology arrives. 
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