Tesla is pivoting hard into solar manufacturing, and its executives say the company is now hiring aggressively to make that shift real. The push is built around Elon Musk’s goal of deploying 100GW of solar manufacturing capacity on American soil before the end of 2028, a target that would reshape both Tesla’s business and the U.S. clean‑energy landscape. The hiring ramp signals that what sounded like a distant ambition is quickly becoming an operational priority inside the company.
The strategy comes at a delicate moment for Tesla, as growth in its core electric vehicle business slows and investors look for the next leg of expansion. By tying a massive solar build‑out to a concrete hiring plan, executives are effectively betting that a vertically integrated energy business can offset flagging EV momentum and keep Tesla at the center of the energy transition.
Musk’s 100GW vision moves from slogan to staffing plan
The centerpiece of the new strategy is Musk’s target of 100 G of solar manufacturing capacity, which internal communications describe as a build‑out from raw materials to finished products in the United States by 2028. Earlier this year, a widely shared post said NEWS that Tesla is looking to deploy 100GW of solar manufacturing on America soil before the end of 2028, framing the goal as a full domestic value chain rather than a simple panel assembly plan. That scale would be equivalent to the output of multiple large power plants and would position Tesla as one of the dominant players in global solar hardware.
Executives are now publicly tying that ambition to a concrete hiring surge. In Feb, company leaders told investors that Tesla is ramping up recruitment to support Musk’s expanded solar strategy, describing the build‑out as a multiyear industrial program rather than a side project. Internal notes cited by Tesla executives frame the 100 G target as central to the company’s long‑term identity as both an automaker and an energy company, not just a hedge against EV volatility.
From Buffalo to the desert: scouting U.S. solar hubs
To hit that scale, Tesla is evaluating a network of U.S. sites that can host new solar cell factories and expansions of existing plants. People familiar with the planning say the company is weighing locations in New York, Arizona and Idaho as potential anchors for the program, with internal projections likening the eventual output to the equivalent of 10 nuclear plants in generating capacity. The review of New York, Arizona and Idaho sites, detailed in Takeaways from internal discussions, underscores how much of the build‑out is expected to happen inside the United States rather than through overseas contractors.
One component of the plan is expanding production at Tesla’s existing factory in Buffalo, New York, which has long been a focal point for the company’s solar ambitions but has struggled to reach its original promises. People who were not authorized to speak publicly say the Buffalo, New York facility is being considered for a larger role in cell manufacturing, potentially alongside new greenfield sites in the Southwest. That Buffalo expansion concept, described in detail in One component of the broader site search, would give Tesla a larger manufacturing footprint in the Northeast while newer plants in Arizona or Idaho handle high‑volume output.
Solar cells as the new bottleneck Tesla wants to own
Behind the geographic chessboard is a simple constraint: solar cells remain a bottleneck in the U.S. energy transition. Solar cells, the core component used to make panels, are still produced in limited quantities domestically and are heavily dependent on imports, particularly from Asia. Analysts note that this supply imbalance has slowed deployment of rooftop and utility‑scale projects, a dynamic described in detail in an overview of how Solar cells have constrained panel makers and slowed adoption of Tesla’s own Solar Roof product.
Tesla, TSLA and Elon Musk are now positioning the company as a domestic solution to that bottleneck, arguing that a vertically integrated chain from polysilicon to finished modules can reduce costs and geopolitical risk. Company briefings cited in a report on how Tesla (TSLA) is moving quickly to turn Elon Musk’s solar goals into reality describe multiple U.S. locations under evaluation and acknowledge that earlier rooftop efforts failed to gain traction. The new plan, by contrast, is framed as a manufacturing‑first strategy that treats cell production capacity as the core asset.
Hiring surge spans engineers, factory workers and global roles
Turning that manufacturing thesis into hardware requires people, and Tesla executives say the hiring machine is now spinning up. In Feb, senior leaders told investors that the company is increasing recruitment to support Musk’s expanded solar strategy, even as it trims some roles elsewhere. A detailed account of how Tesla is turning its ambitions to solar manufacturing notes that the hiring ramp is happening at a time when EV sales are flagging, underscoring the strategic shift in where new headcount is going.
Inside the company, the tone is unapologetically bold. “This is an audacious, ambitious project,” wrote Seth Winger, Tesla senior manager for solar products engineering, in a LinkedIn post that outlined the need for more engineers and manufacturing specialists. Winger’s message, cited in a report on how Seth Winger described the initiative, emphasized that the timeline is new and will require a significant increase in hiring for the initiative. That internal framing helps explain why job postings tied to solar and energy products have multiplied across Tesla’s recruiting channels.
Where the jobs are: from LinkedIn feeds to factory floors
The most visible sign of the hiring push is the growing list of energy‑focused roles on public job boards. A dedicated page for Tesla energy positions shows openings for solar design engineers, project managers and field technicians across the United States, with recruiters using LinkedIn jobs to highlight the solar pivot. The company’s own careers portal lists hundreds of roles tied to manufacturing, installation and software for energy products, with filters that make it easy to surface solar‑specific positions on the main Tesla careers page.
The hiring is not limited to the United States. Earlier recruitment campaigns show Tesla building out teams in markets such as Turkey, where local partners urged candidates to Discover roles by visiting the official Tesla Motors Careers portal for Turkey. That outreach, captured in a guide encouraging applicants to explore Discover opportunities, suggests that as solar manufacturing scales in America, installation and service roles will continue to grow in overseas markets where Tesla is expanding its energy footprint.
