News: Photovoltaics
25 August 2025
Rocket Lab expands US investments for national security programs and semiconductor manufacturing
Launch services and space systems company Rocket Lab Corp of Long Beach, CA, USA (the parent company of space power provider SolAero Technologies Corp) is boosting its US investments to expand semiconductor manufacturing capacity and provide supply chain security for space-grade solar cells and electro-optical sensors for national security space missions. The investments are supported by a $23.9m award through the US Department of Commerce, as part of the CHIPS and Science Act.
In a strategic response to the increasing demand for a robust domestic supply chain of space-grade solar cells and electro-optical sensors for spacecrafts and satellites, Rocket Lab’s capital investments over the next five years are expected to strengthen its market position as a leading satellite manufacturer, components supplier, and end-to-end mission provider for commercial and national security space missions. Rocket Lab is one of only two companies in the USA that specialize in the production of high-efficiency, radiation-hardened, space-grade compound semiconductors.
The investment builds on Rocket Lab’s existing US expansion plans for its space systems products alongside a $275m acquisition of electro-optical payload provider Geost of Tucson, Arizona and northern Virginia. Combined, these multi-hundred million-dollar investments are expected to strengthen America’s semiconductor industrial base and invigorate industry innovation for US commercial and national security satellite missions.
Through these investments, Rocket Lab expects to:
- double production capacity of compound semiconductors and space-grade solar cells, from 20,000 wafers to nearly 35,000 wafers per month;
- provide US spacecraft manufacturers and the wider aerospace industry with access to domestically produced, advanced semiconductor and electro-optical technologies;
- expand its ability to rapidly deliver integrated spacecraft systems purpose-built for US national security; and
- drive economic growth in California, Colorado, Maryland, New Mexico, Mississippi, Arizona and northern Virginia, as it expands its US-based headcount to more than 2000 staff.
“Our leadership in American-made semiconductor technologies is built upon more than 25 years of engineering and manufacturing excellence in New Mexico,” says Brad Clevenger, Rocket Lab’s vice president of Space Systems. “These latest investments will expand that production capacity, strengthen supply chains, create new jobs, and develop economic opportunities across the states where we operate,” he adds.
US CHIPS Incentives Program awards finalized for BAE Systems and Rocket Lab
