Corning opens $1.5 billion solar wafer factory in Michigan

A new $1.5 billion factory in Michigan has completed a critical five-step industrial chain for the first time in nearly a decade, addressing a major gap in the domestic solar supply chain. While American module manufacturing capacity grew approximately 37 percent in 2025, reaching 60.1 gigawatts by the end of the third quarter, the industry has historically relied on overseas suppliers for essential upstream components.

Previously, the United States lacked domestic capacity for the most technically demanding steps, such as processing quartz into polysilicon and slicing ingots into wafers. The wafer production step, in particular, had been entirely absent from American soil. Corning’s Michigan plant marks the first time this specific stage of the solar supply chain has been established within the country, reducing reliance on Asian imports for the wafers and cells required to build solar modules.