# Elon Musk Quietly Bought a Medium Sized Fossil Fuel Energy Company Back in May > Source: > Published: 2026-07-16 04:35:05+00:00 [As I pointed out earlier this year](https://gizmodo.com/former-climate-hero-wins-permit-for-41-gas-turbines-in-mississippi-2000732189) when he obtained a permit for dozens of gas turbines to operate the data centers that power such AI innovations as Grok, Elon Musk said a bunch of things about how capitalism’s failures had made fossil fuels profitable [during an interview back in 2014.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYC23aFFX_M) Here’s a sample: […] because there’s no price on carbon emissions it makes things that are carbon-producing very rewarding, because the true price is not being paid. So if you’re a petrochemical engineer you can earn a tremendous amount of money, but you shouldn’t really be earning that huge amount of money. Anyway, as [Electrek noticed yesterday](https://electrek.co/2026/07/14/musk-buys-gas-turbine-company-apr-energy-grok/), back in May, Musk bought a medium sized fossil fuel energy company called APR Energy that provides mobile gas powered turbines for generating electricity. [Documents posted to the FTC website](https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/early-termination-notices/20261350) confirm that the “acquiring party” is Elon Musk the individual—not, say, SpaceX. But there wasn’t any publicity blitz or press release about the acquisition, and a site search of the APR Energy website for “Musk” produces zero results. And it’s not a small company. Electrek estimates the size at $1 billion. The bio for the CEO on the APR energy website [notes that the company has 800 employees](https://www.aprenergy.com/about/leadership/). And it has a YouTube channel: Congratulations to Elon Musk on his exciting new business venture.