Early history SunPower was founded on April 24, 1985, by
Richard Swanson, who was a
Stanford University professor focused on electrical engineering. Swanson studied solar power efficiency in the Stanford Electronics Laboratory with funding from research grants. After breaking a record for solar power efficiency in lab conditions, he took a sabbatical to start SunPower and commercialize the technology. Initially, the company was called Eos and was funded with $2,000 in savings between Swanson and his friend Richard Crane.
Growth SunPower founder Richard Swanson's former classmate,
T.J. Rodgers, was the CEO of
Cypress Semiconductor and took an interest in investing in the company. Starting with an investment of $8 million, Cypress eventually invested about $150 million, Revenues increased from $5 million in 2003 to $78.7 million in 2005. and build a second factory. SunPower collaborated with PowerLight to develop its roofing-tile solar product called SunTile. In order to combine their R&D efforts, SunPower acquired PowerLight for $265 million, in January 2007. By 2007, half of Cypress' revenues, or $775 million, was coming from its investment in SunPower. SunPower was spun-off as a separate business from Cypress in 2008. The following year, SunPower cut back production due to an overall market decline in solar power purchases. SunPower also announced the French oil and gas company
Total was acquiring a majority interest in SunPower for $1.37 billion. In 2012, SunPower founder Richard Swanson retired, though he continued to serve on the SunPower advisory board. This was followed by SunPower's 2014 acquisition of
SolarBridge, which developed
microinverters used to improve the efficiency of solar panels. In 2014, SunPower raised $220 million from
Bank of America and
Merrill Lynch, in order to fund customer financing options. That same year, SunPower invested $20 million in a home energy app company called Tendril. As part of the deal, the two companies began integrating their products, so the home automation software from Tendril could time heavy energy use for when the solar panels are generating the most power. In 2021, Tom Werner retired as CEO and Peter Faricy took his place as CEO. In February 2022, SunPower spun-off its commercial and industrial installation divisions, which were purchased by SunPower investor TotalEnergies for $250 million. SunPower said the transaction would allow it to focus on residential installations.
Technical default and bankruptcy The company announced on December 18, 2023, that there was a question it will be a "
going concern," indicating that leadership was uncertain if the company could continue operations given the company's current financial position. The company also announced that it previously incorrectly accounted for inventory, causing a
technical default; however creditors gave the company time to shore up its finances before calling those debts. On August 5, 2024, SunPower filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company entered a
stalking horse bid to sell off its assets to
Complete Solaria, Inc. for $50 million, and in April 2025,
Complete Solaria, Inc. announced it was rebranding as SunPower. == References ==