The company, headquartered in San Jose, California, was founded in 1985 by Richard Swanson, an electrical engineering professor from Stanford University.

TotalEnergies, a French energy and oil company purchased a controlling interest in SunPower for US$1.37 billion in 2011 but disengaged progressively until reaching 32.5%.

[citation needed] The company previously developed and manufactured photovoltaic panels, before spinning off that part of its business in 2020 as Maxeon Solar Technologies.

The company had also previously marketed its products to commercial and industrial customers before agreeing to sell that business line to TotalEnergies in February 2022.

[5]: 468  After breaking a record for solar power efficiency in lab conditions, he took a sabbatical to start SunPower and commercialize the technology.

[5]: 468 Some of SunPower's early revenues were from research grants[3] and using its manufacturing facilities to create silicon wafers for semiconductor companies.

[5]: 469 Demand for SunPower's products increased in the early 2000s, due to rising utility costs, government subsidies, and its new A-300 solar cell.

[5]: 469  SunPower moved into a larger corporate headquarters location in San Jose, California and secured several contracts with major retailers for solar panel installations.

[14] SunPower acquired Sunray Renewable Energy, a solar panel company based in Italy, for $277 million in 2010, in order to expand in Europe.

[21][22] In 2014, SunPower raised $220 million from Bank of America and Merrill Lynch, in order to fund customer financing options.

[24] 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.

[24] In 2019, SunPower announced it was going to spin off its manufacturing division into a separate business in Singapore named Maxeon Solar Technologies.