SunPower
- 🦄Became a unicorn2020
- 📈Peak valuation$9 Billion ’21
- 💔Became a Unitard2022
- 💸Last valuationWiped out
How it happened
SunPower was one of America's best-known rooftop-solar companies, and its market value swelled to $9B during the 2021 clean-energy boom. As interest rates rose and demand slumped, it disclosed accounting problems and a liquidity crisis; in August 2024 it filed for Chapter 11 and sold its core assets to Complete Solaria for about $45M, wiping out shareholders. Glassdoor reviews traced the decline: after an executive team recruited from Amazon took over in 2021, insiders said it was run like a tech company by leaders with no solar experience, cycling through reorgs and repeated layoffs. Reviewers cited canceled bonuses, a pivot to reselling rebranded modules after the manufacturing spinoff, and mass 2024 layoffs delivered by email.
Employee accounts paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗. See our methodology.
Source: Electrek / Solar Power World / Epiq (peak market cap ~$9B early 2021; Chapter 11 Aug 5 2024 in Delaware amid liquidity crisis and accounting issues; assets sold to Complete Solaria ~$45M, which reclaimed the SunPower name and SPWR ticker April 2025)
