Elon Musk floats idea of major new Tesla facility in US — here's what's happening

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has floated the idea of building a new Tesla Solar Gigafactory in America. 

As artificial intelligence becomes more prominent and energy demands soar, Musk is signaling a desire to increase the company's solar power production in the United States. 

With Tesla's dependence on electricity to power its AI technology, generating its own energy has suddenly become strategically imperative.

In a July 2 post on X, Musk shared his thoughts with his followers regarding the potential future of the company. 

"Maybe there should be a solar Gigafactory in America," Musk wrote. 

This followed online discussions comparing U.S. and Chinese solar efforts, leading Musk to advocate for another Tesla Gigafactory. The idea reflects his broader push to better integrate Tesla's role in the energy industry by ramping up domestic solar infrastructure.

As Not A Tesla App noted, Musk's focus on increasing solar production may stem from the fact that China has reportedly added 93 gigawatts of solar power capacity in May. 

This greatly outperforms the new solar energy capacity created in the U.S. throughout the entire first quarter of 2025 — according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, the U.S. solar industry installed 10.8 GW of new electricity-generating capacity during that period.

"Solar and storage continue to dominate America's energy economy, adding more new capacity to the grid than any technology using increasingly American-made equipment," SEIA president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper said in a statement. 

Despite this, Musk continues to push solar energy to the forefront. This may be in order to help power his assortment of AI technologies, including Tesla Optimus, Neuralink, and Grok. AI systems require significant energy due to the intensive training needed to run complex models.  

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Nothing official has been announced by Tesla yet, so Musk's vision could still be a distant possibility. 

Through the first quarter of 2025, Tesla reported a massive decrease in car sales. Many have attributed this to Musk's involvement in U.S. politics and his inflammatory actions and statements. 

While Musk has recommitted more time to focus on Tesla, the company has still shown signs of struggles in many key regions, including Europe.

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