21. Segment and Geographical Information

First Solar operates as one business, which involves the design, manufacture, and sale of CdTe solar modules, which convert sunlight into electricity. Third-party customers of this segment include system developers, independent power producers, utilities, commercial and industrial companies, large corporate energy buyers, and other system owners and operators. Our business is managed by our Chief Executive Officer, who is also considered our chief operating decision maker (“CODM”).

Prior to 2025, we regularly provided our CODM with financial information that included certain legacy business activities. As such activities have continued to decline in size and importance, our CODM no longer receives detailed financial information at this disaggregated level. Therefore, we currently operate as a single operating segment, and our disclosures reflect this change.

Although our CODM regularly uses gross profit for key operating decisions about allocating resources and assessing performance, we have concluded that consolidated net income is also used and is the measure of profit or loss required to be disclosed under the provisions of ASC 280 for our single operating segment. Accordingly, we considered whether there were any significant expense categories to disclose and concluded that the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes thereto include the relevant categories regularly provided to our CODM. The measure of segment assets is reported in our consolidated balance sheets as “Total assets.”
The following table presents net sales for the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024, and 2023 by geographic region, based on the customer country of invoicing (in thousands):
 202520242023
United States$4,994,679 $3,904,844 $3,187,603 
India195,584 201,714 10,869 
France6,303 34,370 68,302 
All other foreign countries22,810 65,361 51,828 
Net sales$5,219,376 $4,206,289 $3,318,602 

The following table presents long-lived assets, which include property, plant and equipment, lease assets, and project assets as of December 31, 2025 and 2024 by geographic region, based on the physical location of the assets (in thousands):
 20252024
United States$4,392,571 $3,911,923 
Malaysia574,255 646,111 
Vietnam434,749 500,568 
India433,661 471,736 
All other foreign countries62,337 52,345 
Long-lived assets$5,897,573 $5,582,683 

Historical Timeline

Fiscal YearFiled
2025Feb 24, 2026Showing above
2024Feb 25, 2025
2023Feb 27, 2024
2022Feb 28, 2023
2021Mar 1, 2022
2020Feb 26, 2021
2019Feb 21, 2020
2018Feb 22, 2019
2017Feb 23, 2018
2016Feb 22, 2017
2015Feb 24, 2016

About Segments Disclosures

Segment disclosures break a company into its reportable operating units, revealing revenue, profit, and asset allocation that consolidated financial statements obscure. Under ASC 280, segments must match how the chief operating decision maker views the business, providing a window into internal management structure and resource allocation priorities.

Key signals: compare segment margins to identify which units drive profitability and which destroy value. Watch for changes in the number of reportable segments — segment aggregation or disaggregation often coincides with strategic shifts or attempts to obscure declining performance. Intersegment elimination patterns reveal internal pricing practices. The reconciliation between segment totals and consolidated figures exposes corporate overhead allocation and unallocated items. Geographic revenue concentration highlights regulatory and currency exposure. Compare segment-level capital expenditure against segment revenue to assess where management is investing for future growth versus harvesting existing assets.