Fortescue’s billionaire chairman Andrew Forrest blasted his executives about their plans to acquire a coal-to-hydrogen project, describing it as “the most stupid” deal he had seen in a long time in private messages that have come to light through litigation in the United States.

In 2022, Fortescue worked with Kid Shelleen, billionaire Paul Tudor Jones’ flagship investment vehicle, on a joint bid for gas-fired power stations in Texas and coal plants in Ohio and West Virginia. The companies wanted to convert the plans to produce clean-burning hydrogen fuel.