SpaceX signs $69 million deal with Singulus for 100 GW of solar equipment for Musk’s planned Starmind satellite network
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has signed a major supply contract with Germany-based Singulus Technologies for a production line to manufacture heterojunction (HJT) solar cells to support the production of its Starmind satellites in Bastrop, Texas.
Singulus, which made the announcement on Tuesday, said that as part of its SpaceX partnership, the company will be developing high-performance solar cells and production equipment based on proven technologies deployed at scale.
“The first production line will be delivered in the first half of 2027, and production will scale to support more than 100 GW of production equipment as SpaceX accelerates satellite manufacturing,” Singulus said in a release.
SpaceX said the agreement provides a durable option for advanced solar cell manufacturing as it accelerates the production of its Starmind satellites in Texas.
“Partnering with Singulus gives us a high-performance manufacturing path for solar cells for our Starmind satellites at our production facility in Texas. The combination of their process expertise and our long-term commitment creates a durable option for scaling solar production," Mike Nicolls, Senior Vice President of Starlink at SpaceX, said.
“SpaceX has ordered 100 GW/year of HJT solar manufacturing equipment from Singulus in Germany. This is for Starmind to create a sentient sun,” Musk said in a post on X.
"Our unique platform approach, which combines wet chemistry, vacuum coating and thermal processing, is a strong differentiator in the market. The strategic partnership with SpaceX allows us to further industrialize these capabilities at a meaningful scale and solidify our position as a leading Western provider of next-generation solar cell technology," Lars Lieberwirth, Member of the Executive Board of Singulus, said.
According to reports, SpaceX aims to put around 10,000 Nvidia server racks into orbit by 2028 for its Starmind data centers.
On its website, SpaceX said that it will be using orbital satellite with localized compute that takes advantage of readily available power and cooling in space and beam back data via high-bandwidth lasers to the Starlink constellation.
SpaceX also plans to produce advanced AI chips at scale in its new fab facility, a joint project with Tesla using a modular architecture that enables seamless integration and continuous upgrades of next-generation processors.
Musk had also spoken about Starmind recently while advocating for the merger of his two companies, SpaceX and Tesla.
"I do think there's a lot of merit to combining the companies as we are pretty much in the superintelligence singularity, and there's a lot to be gained from cooperating on developing superintelligence software, chip design, the Terafab obviously, robotics, mass-to-orbit with the Starmind constellation, connectivity," he said.
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