Musk just bought a power company for $1B
What's the story
Elon Musk has acquired APR Energy, a Jacksonville-based company that operates mobile gas and diesel turbines with over 1GW of generation capacity. The deal, worth more than $1 billion, was revealed through a Federal Trade Commission early termination notice. The acquisition will help power the electricity-hungry data centers running SpaceXAI's Grok.
Innovative approach
APR Energy's unique approach to power generation
APR Energy doesn't run a traditional power plant. Instead, it uses trailer-mounted gas turbines and reciprocating diesel and natural gas engines that can reach full power in under 10 minutes.
The company was rebranded as New APR Energy LLC after Fortress Investment Group acquired its assets in late 2024.
Operational concerns
Controversial use of gas turbines by Musk
Musk has been using gas turbines to keep Grok online, a move that has drawn criticism.
SpaceXAI's Colossus and Colossus 2 supercomputers in Memphis train and serve Grok, but they have been doing it largely on unpermitted gas turbines.
The Department of Justice intervened to keep these turbines running in South Memphis, citing national security concerns.
Strategic move
What APR Energy acquisition means for Musk
The purchase of APR Energy secures a steady supply of gas turbines for Musk.
These can be installed near a data center without waiting for grid interconnection.
This strategy is in line with Musk's plan to keep Grok running, despite the environmental concerns raised by civil rights groups and watchdogs about pollution from these turbines.
Content issues
Grok now serves a significant amount of adult content
Over half of Grok's traffic is now driven by adult content, including pornographic image and video generation, erotica, and sexually explicit AI "companion" chats.
This has raised ethical concerns about the use of AI technology for such purposes.
Despite these issues, Musk has not added guardrails to prevent inappropriate outputs from Grok.
Transition
A departure from Musk's clean energy vision
The acquisition of a fossil fuel company marks a major shift in Musk's clean energy narrative. He had previously championed solar-plus-battery storage as the way out of fossil fuels.
However, he has now switched to burning gas for xAI and quietly dropped "sustainable" from Tesla's mission statement altogether.
The decision to buy a gas and diesel turbine fleet instead of using Tesla Megapacks and solar for his own compute is also surprising.