Tesla is changing! Building 100GW of photovoltaic capacity, no longer pursuing automotive scale

21st Century Business Herald Reporter Cao Enhui

As Tesla’s (TSLA.US) 2025 annual financial report is released, the company’s current and future business development focus has once again attracted public attention.

On January 29, 2026, Beijing time, Tesla officially announced its Q4 and full-year 2025 financial results—during the reporting period, the company achieved revenue of $94.827 billion and net profit attributable to shareholders of $3.794 billion, representing decreases of 2.93% and 46.50% year-on-year, respectively.

However, Tesla’s electric vehicle and energy storage business shipments for the year were impressive: its global production of electric vehicles was approximately 1.655 million units, with 1.636 million units delivered, setting a new record in the Asia-Pacific market; its energy storage installed capacity reached 46.7 GWh, a year-on-year increase of 48.7%, also a new record.

According to the 21st Century Business Herald reporter, in 2025, Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory delivered 851,000 vehicles, accounting for 52% of the global total deliveries; the Shanghai Gigafactory’s energy storage plant plans an annual production of 10,000 Megapacks, with a capacity close to 40 GWh. By the end of 2025, 2,000 units had been produced and exported to Europe and Australia.

During the earnings call, Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated that with the development of artificial intelligence and robotics, the future will achieve “high income for all humanity and extraordinary prosperity,” rather than “basic income.” In pursuit of this goal, Tesla will continue to improve the safety of mobility and AI-related products, reduce product costs, enable people to obtain necessary items without compromise, and protect the beautiful natural environment.

This view has been interpreted by the outside world as Tesla updating its strategic direction, emphasizing that it will no longer be just an automaker but will fully transform into a company focused on autonomous driving, robotics, and energy businesses. In response, Musk said during the call that Tesla has revised its mission to “build an extraordinary prosperous world.”

According to information from Tesla’s earnings call, the company will focus on artificial intelligence and robotics in the future, rather than pursuing larger vehicle sales volumes. To promote this transformation, Tesla has announced investment efforts far exceeding market expectations—its capital expenditure in 2026 is expected to surpass $20 billion, including converting the Model S/X production line at the Fremont factory into a humanoid robot production line, with mass production expected to start by the end of 2026 and an ultimate annual capacity of 1 million units; building the Cortex 2 computing cluster at the Texas Gigafactory to further enhance AI training computing power, planning to more than double the local computing capacity at the Texas Gigafactory in the first half of 2026 (based on H100 equivalent computing power); progress continues on Tesla’s self-developed, custom-designed AI5 and AI6 autonomous driving inference chips, with plans to mass-produce them in 2027 and 2028, respectively; and restarting the development of the Dojo 3 chip in 2026, which will be used for space AI computing and other applications.

In terms of energy storage, besides the record-high shipment scale of energy storage products mentioned above, Tesla plans to start production of Megapack 3 and Megablock at the Houston energy storage Gigafactory in 2026.

It is worth noting that Tesla truly aims to build 100 GW of photovoltaic capacity. During the call, the management stated their commitment to achieving 100 GW of solar cell capacity. Besides powering AI data centers, this initiative, utilizing solar energy and energy storage systems, can also increase large-scale available capacity for the power grid.

The 21st Century Business Herald reporter noted that at the recently concluded Davos World Economic Forum, Musk proposed that SpaceX and Tesla will achieve a combined annual solar manufacturing capacity of 200 GW in the United States within three years.

With the expansion of business areas and continuous technological advancements, Tesla is rapidly evolving into a comprehensive technology company covering autonomous driving, humanoid robots, electric vehicles, and sustainable energy.

However, in the face of Tesla’s strategic transformation and high-intensity investment plans, some investment banks have shown cautious attitudes. According to Wallstreetcn, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have respectively lowered their target prices for Tesla—Morgan Stanley from $425 to $415, and Goldman Sachs from $420 to $405.