First Solar Inc
- Industry
- Solar PV Manufacturing
- Exchange
- US
- Country
- USA
- IPO date
- Nov 17, 2006
- Employees
- 7,900
- Website
- www.firstsolar.com
Composite valuation range · conservative $130–$170 / fair $190–$250 / optimistic $290–$340. At $205.83, Within the fair intrinsic-value range.
At publication $273.67 (May 28, 2026)
Data from EODHD, shown in the reporting currency; for reference only, not investment advice.
First Solar, Inc., a solar technology company, provides photovoltaic (PV) solar energy solutions in the United States, France, India, Chile, and internationally. The company manufactures and sells PV solar modules with thin film semiconductor technology that provides conventional crystalline silicon PV solar modules. It also designs, manufactures, and sells cadmium telluride solar modules that convert sunlight into electricity. The company serves system developers, independent power producers, utilities, commercial and industrial companies, large corporate energy buyers, and other system owners and operators. The company was formerly known as First Solar Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to First Solar, Inc. in 2006. First Solar, Inc. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.
History
First Solar, Inc. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. Formerly known as First Solar Holdings, Inc., it adopted its current name in 2006 and completed its IPO on November 17, 2006. The company designs, manufactures, and sells cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film photovoltaic modules, an alternative to conventional crystalline silicon PV, selling priced-per-watt to system developers, independent power producers, utilities, and large corporate energy buyers across the United States, France, India, Chile, and other markets. It established a global module recycling program in 2005, with roughly 90% of recovered module material reusable, and in 2023 acquired perovskite technology company Evolar. Operations have scaled into the company's fifth U.S. plant, with a sixth U.S. plant planned to come online in the second half of 2026, alongside expansion in the United States and India and a reduced footprint in Europe; basic share count rose only modestly from about 105.87 million in 2020 to about 107.24 million in 2025. As of the end of the first quarter of 2026, the company employed about 7,900 people and held a contracted backlog of 47.9 GW worth roughly 14.4 billion US dollars, with deliveries expected through 2030.
Industry position
First Solar describes itself as the world's largest thin-film photovoltaic module manufacturer and the largest PV module manufacturer in the Western Hemisphere. Its differentiation rests on U.S.-based thin-film technology that is relatively independent of the China-centered crystalline silicon supply chain, and on scarce supply within the U.S. policy environment rather than lowest global cost. While thin film accounted for only about 3% of global PV deployment from 2015 to 2023, it exceeded 17% of total U.S. PV deployment and reached 24% in U.S. utility-scale projects. The company's principal competition comes from the global crystalline silicon module cluster, including JinkoSolar, LONGi, Trina, JA Solar, and Canadian Solar, many of them closely tied to China. Sources of its competitive position include more than 2 billion US dollars of cumulative R&D investment over the past 20 years protected by patents, trademarks, and trade secrets; manufacturing scale and execution; customer bankability and delivery certainty; recycling and lifecycle capability; and a U.S. regulatory and trade position. In 2025, Silicon Ranch and NextEra Energy each accounted for more than 10% of net sales, and the company states that most of its modules are sold to U.S. projects.