China PV’s Space Solar Pop and the 24-Hour Paper Trail
A rumored tour lit up A-shares. Filings and regulators cooled it within 24 hours.
Editor’s Note: This is FlashPoint, Hello China Tech’s premium quick-strike column on one market-moving China tech event and why it matters.
Today’s column dissects Musk’s team visit to Chinese solar giants. The supply chain dependency is real. The harder question is whether this is investable – and what regulators and company filings revealed within 24 hours of the rally.
The groundwork was laid at Davos on January 22nd. Elon Musk announced that SpaceX and Tesla were jointly building a 200GW annual solar manufacturing capacity in the United States, targeting completion within three years, primarily to power ground-based data centres and AI satellites. Media reports framed this as roughly equivalent to one-quarter of America’s total electricity demand, a comparison designed to convey ambition rather than physical precision. The scale nonetheless transformed space solar from research concept to commercial narrative.
Two weeks later, Musk’s team toured Chinese photovoltaic manufacturers. The stock market’s response was anything but subtle.
JinkoSolar surged 36 per cent in two trading days. GCL-SI gained 26 per cent over three sessions. Jingsheng Mechanical jumped 33 per cent before retreating nearly 10 per cent. The catalyst: reported visits to multiple Chinese solar giants, which media interpreted as space solar-related reconnaissance. The companies confirmed receiving the delegation but denied any concrete cooperation, describing the exchanges as “preliminary technical and industry-level discussions” with no actual partnership undertaken.
What reportedly drew attention was not commodity modules but next-generation technology. According to industry disclosures, the team showed particular interest in heterojunction (HJT) and perovskite cells. The logic is straightforward. HJT offers higher open-circuit voltage and superior temperature coefficients, meaning less power loss in high-heat environments. Perovskite cells achieve theoretically higher efficiency in the vacuum and low temperatures of space, and can be manufactured thin and flexible enough to launch in rolled form before unfurling in orbit. For anyone planning to power AI infrastructure at scale, these characteristics matter.
The supply chain logic is equally clear. Chinese manufacturers account for over 70 per cent of global capacity and shipments across equipment, materials, and modules, constituting what one industry founder called “the true infrastructure layer of the global photovoltaic industry”. If Musk intends to pursue large-scale, low-cost space solar deployment, he will “inevitably depend on China,” regardless of where final assembly occurs.
Yet structural relevance is not the same as imminent revenue.
