You can't seem to go a week in this business without witnessing a mind-boggling CIGS deal. Yesterday, VentureWire reported that SoloPower, which plans to make solar panels with copper indium gallium selenide, has raised $200 million to build factories. This follows a recent announcement that Nanosolar raised $300 million. Miasole allegedly has raised $210 million for more factories. That's $710 million right there. Meanwhile, Solyndra is seeking $350 million, according to my sources. If the company gets that, that's $1.06 billion into four CIGS companies and only one of them (Nanosolar) has shipped anything. Even then Nanosolar is only shipping in nominal volumes. (If you want to add other thin-film companies into the total, cadmium telluride specialist AVA solar raised $104 million recently.) And don't forget, this is on top of the $300+ million CIGS companies have raised collectively between 2005 and 2007. Will it stop? Not yet. To stay in the market and remain competitive, the remaining CIGS companies will have to raise money as well build factories. It's sort of like the flash-memory market. It isn't really a business – it's more like a bad gambling habit. Which brings us to HelioVolt and Global Solar. They are the last two "big" names in CIGS and thus the next two companies that will announce big financing deals. If I had to guess, I'd say HelioVolt is next. Global Solar already has factories, and is actually producing and selling solar cells. Another factory in Germany will go on line in the fall. HelioVolt won't go into production until 2009. HelioVolt is also funded in part by the Masdar Foundation, the venture and development arm of the sultanate of Abu Dhabi. These guys have money. We will also see an announcement coming up about a CIGS company that is not making solar cells but will participate in CIGS in some manner. My guess is that it's going to be an equipment maker. In case you're wondering, the solar cells from all of these companies will be somewhat similar. Solyndra's is the most different in structure, but the active agents in each will be the same. Where they differ is in how they manufacture the cells. SoloPower uses electroplating. NanoSolar prints the CIGS materials onto substrates. HelioVolt has its FASST process. So if any of these companies run into trouble raising cash by producing solar cells, some of them could transition into equipment makers.