Maxeon has announced that it will restructure its operations to focus exclusively on the US market. The Singapore-based global company will ink a deal with its majority shareholder’s parent company (TCL) to sell its European, Asian and Latin American sales and marketing. TCL will form a new entity, TCL SunPower International, for Maxeon’s former non-US entities, including Maxeon’s manufacturing operations in the Philippines.
Assembly of solar panels at Maxeon’s factory in Mexico.
With the new exclusive focus on the United States, Maxeon said it has signed a five-year lease on an existing building in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and plans to begin solar panel production at the 2-GW facility in early 2026. Maxeon had previously planned to build a solar cell and panel manufacturing facility from scratch in Albuquerque.
“As Maxeon intensifies its focus on the US market, our priority is to further expand our growing residential and commercial partner network and support our established utility base,” said George Guothe CEO of Maxeon. “This strategic realignment of our business is intended to keep us closer and more aligned to the needs of our U.S. customer base, allowing us to leverage Maxeon’s deep experience and top reputation for product innovation and quality that result of nearly 40 years of technology leadership and intellectual property investments.”
Guo also stated that for now, only module assembly will take place at the 2-GW facility, and that Maxeon will continue to evaluate its long-term target of solar cell production.
Maxeon announced earlier this month that its Mexico-assembled solar panels containing Malaysian solar cells were in the hands of U.S. Customs, as CBP stepped up its surveillance of solar panel supply chains looking for links to Uyghur forced labor. While these solar panels had no connection at all to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region or often to China, Maxeon’s sale of Asian assets to TCL should improve documentation speed. Today’s decision made no mention of Maxeon’s Malaysian operations.
