Musk clarifies that SpaceX bought APR Energy (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Daily Record) — A Federal Trade Commission notice in May said billionaire Elon Musk bought the assets of Jacksonville-based APR Energy, but Musk indicated in an Aug. 29 post on his X platform that it was actually his SpaceX business that bought it.
“Since I’m the controlling shareholder of SpaceX, it weirdly gets reported as me buying it, which is not true,” he said.
It gets reported that way because the May 14 FTC filing cites Musk as the “acquiring party.”
The FTC filing had no other information and Musk and officials of SpaceX and APR had not commented at all on the deal until the X post.
Musk made the comment in response to another X post talking about him buying the company.
SpaceX, officially known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., went public June 12 with an initial public offering. Its Securities and Exchange Commission filings have made no mention of APR.
APR deploys fast-track power plants at sites around the world. Some news websites have speculated that Musk wanted the assets to provide power to his various business ventures, rather than APR’s past business of providing power for third parties.
Jacksonville-based Duos Technologies Group Inc. owned 5% of APR and disclosed the sale in a May 28 SEC filing but did not name the buyer.
Duos said it received net proceeds of $50.4 million for its 5% stake, indicating the total value of the deal was at least $1 billion.
Funds controlled by Fortress Investment Group acquired the business in late 2024 and was working with Duos to deploy the assets.
Fortress did not make any announcements about the sale of APR.
It is unknown if APR is continuing to operate as a separate company or has been folded into SpaceX.
APR’s website has not been working. A phone message left with the company Aug. 31 was not immediately returned.