Breakthrough Energy

Breakthrough Energy

Company type	Private
Industry	Energy
Founded	2015;10 years ago (2015)
Founder	Bill Gates
Headquarters	Kirkland, Washington
Website	breakthroughenergy.org

Breakthrough Energy is the umbrella name of several organizations, founded by Bill Gates in 2015, that aim to accelerate innovation in sustainable energy and in other technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It has been investing in a variety of startup companies which were attempting to commercialize new concepts such as nuclear fusion, large-capacity batteries to store renewable energy, and microbe-generated biofuels. ^[1] In 2025, strategy shifted away from public policy towards supporting clean energy technology alone, as the Second Trump administration has been promoting fossil fuels and dissolved programs addressing climate change.

History

At the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in November 2015, Gates announced that a coalition of 28 high net-worth investors from ten countries had committed to the Breakthrough Energy initiative. A complementary initiative of Gates, Mission Innovation, was announced at the same time. ^[2]

In December 2016, a group of investors collectively worth US$170 billion announced more personal commitment to funding the efforts of a US$1 billion fund "focused on fighting climate change by investing in clean energy innovation." The fund is named Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund. ^[3]

In March 2025, Bill Gates dissolved the unit working in Europe and the United States unit working on public policy, because "it was not likely to have a significant effect in Washington", as the Second Trump administration has been promoting fossil fuels and dissolved programs addressing climate change. ^[4]

Strategy

At its inception in 2015, Gates explained, "The renewable technologies we have today, like wind and solar, have made a lot of progress and could be one path to a zero-carbon energy future... But given the scale of the challenge, we need to be exploring many different paths." ^[5] Breakthrough Energy invests primarily in businesses where the risk of failure is high and the timeframe for return on investment is 20 years. Traditional venture capitalists look for a return on investment in five years, which may not be enough for the special challenges of the energy sector. ^[1] ing In 2025, strategy shifted away from public policy towards supporting clean energy companies through the Breakthrough Energy Catalyst program, Breakthrough Energy Ventures. ^[4]

Members

The group is spearheaded by Bill Gates, who previously announced a personal $2 billion investment, ^[6] and includes: ^{[7] [8] [9]}

• Jeff Bezos
• Marc Benioff
• Michael Bloomberg
• Richard Branson
• Ray Dalio ^[10]
• Reid Hoffman
• Jack Ma
• George Soros
• Tom Steyer
• Meg Whitman
• Dani El Zain
• Mark Zuckerberg
• University of California, the sole institutional investor at launch ^[11]
• Nat Simons
• Mukesh Ambani ^[12]

Criticism

There has been criticism that the coalition was announced too early, before crucial details had been confirmed. At launch, a Gates Foundation spokesman confirmed that investment professionals had yet to be appointed, named investors—other than Gates—had not publicly stated their level of investment and a financial structure had not been confirmed. ^[13]

Notable projects

• Blue Frontier - a startup developing new air-conditioning technologies as of 2022 ^[14]

• Verdox — carbon capture. In February 2022, Breakthrough Energy agreed to join an investors syndicate providing $80 million in capital to Verdox, Inc., a startup company attempting to scale a new carbon capture and removal platform developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—one of five carbon capture technology investments the organization^{[ which? ]} would make by the beginning of the following May. ^{[15] [16] [17]} The Verdox, Inc. carbon capture design, created by chemical engineers T. Alan Hatton and Sahag Voskian, ^{[18] [19] [20]} co-won a $1 million preliminary prize along with Carbfix (co-founded by geochemist Wallace S. Broecker) from an X Prize Foundation contest funded by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. ^{[list 1]}

• Methanol fuel cells (August 2022), conversion of methanol to electricity ^[26]
• Data Blanket - a wildfire drone technology start-up
• Dioxycle, a startup developing sustainable ethylene from recycled carbon emissions. ^[27]

• efforts to connect producers and consumers of green hydrogen. ^[28]

See also

• Global Apollo Programme

References

1. "Billionaire-Backed Breakthrough Energy Ventures Makes 7 More Investments". www.greentechmedia.com. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
2. "Announcing: "Mission Innovation"". whitehouse.gov . 29 November 2015. Retrieved 30 November 2015– via National Archives.
3. Delaney, Kevin (12 December 2016) Bill Gates and investors worth $170 billion are launching a fund to fight climate change through energy innovation Quartz, Quartz Media, Inc. Retrieved 1 January 2019
4. Gelles, David; Schleifer, Theodore (2025-03-12). "Climate Group Funded by Bill Gates Slashes Staff in Major Retreat". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2025-03-17.
5. Milman, Oliver (30 November 2015). "Zuckerberg, Gates and other tech titans form clean energy investment coalition". The Guardian . Retrieved 1 December 2015.
6. Chhabra, Esha. "Bill Gates Rallies With Tech Leaders To Launch A Multi-Billion Dollar Energy Fund". Forbes . Retrieved 30 November 2015.
7. Lapowsky, Issie. "Tech Billionaires Team Up to Take On Climate Change". Wired . Condé Nast Publications . Retrieved 30 November 2015.
8. Bellware, Kim (30 November 2015). "World's Tech Giants Team Up For Mega Investment In Clean Energy". The Huffington Post . The Huffington Post Media Group. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
9. Cooper, Anderson (15 February 2021). "Bill Gates: How the World Can Avoid a Climate Disaster". 60 Minutes . CBS News. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
10. "BEV Board and Investors | Breakthrough Energy". breakthroughenergy.org. Retrieved 2023-10-11.
11. Green, Emily (29 November 2015). "UC joins Bill Gates' clean-energy investment initiative". San Francisco Chronicle . Hearst Corporation . Retrieved 30 November 2015.
12. "Mukesh Ambani's RIL to invest $50 mn in Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Ventures". The Financial Express. 2020-11-13. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
13. Primack, Dan. "Bill Gates' Clean Energy Plan Isn't Ready for Primetime". Fortune . Time, Inc. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
14. Clifford, Catherine (2022-07-28). "Air conditioning is a climate disaster and Bill Gates is investing in this startup to fix it". CNBC.
15. "Verdox Captures $80M to Develop Novel Electric Carbon Removal Technology". Business Wire . Berkshire Hathaway. February 2, 2022. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
16. Rathi, Akshat (February 2, 2022). "Bill Gates Invests in Carbon Capture Startup After Tech Breakthrough". Bloomberg News . Retrieved July 7, 2022.
17. Clifford, Catherine (May 7, 2022). "Carbon capture challenges are not deterring investor at Bill Gates' firm". CNBC. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
18. Chandler, David (October 24, 2019). "MIT engineers develop a new way to remove carbon dioxide from air". MIT News . Massachusetts Institute of Technology . Retrieved July 18, 2022.
19. Stauffer, Nancy W. (July 9, 2020). "A new approach to carbon capture". MIT News. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved July 18, 2022.
20. Voskian, Sahag; Hatton, T. Alan (2019). "Faradaic electro-swing reactive adsorption for CO₂ capture". Energy & Environmental Science . 2019 (12). Royal Society of Chemistry: 3530–3547. doi: 10.1039/C9EE02412C . hdl: 1721.1/123890 . S2CID   208719788.
21. Brabant, Malcolm (August 23, 2016). "To combat climate change, these scientists are turning CO2 into rock". PBS NewsHour . WETA-TV . Retrieved July 18, 2022.
22. "Verdox Wins $1M XPRIZE Carbon Removal Award Together with Partner Carbfix". Business Wire. Berkshire Hathaway. April 22, 2022. Retrieved July 18, 2022.
23. "XPRIZE and the Musk Foundation Award $15M to Prize Milestone Winners in $100M Carbon Removal Competition". X Prize Foundation. April 22, 2022. Retrieved July 18, 2022.
24. Clifford, Catherine (February 8, 2021). "The who, what and where of Elon Musk's $100 million prize money for carbon capture innovation". CNBC. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
25. Chappell, Bill (February 8, 2021). "Elon Musk Funds $100 Million XPrize For Pursuit Of New Carbon Removal Ideas". NPR . Retrieved July 7, 2022.
26. "Breakthrough Energy Ventures backs methanol fuel cell company Blue World Technologies". Green Car Congress.
27. Jessop, Simon (July 25, 2023). "Dioxycle raises $17 million to help develop green ethylene". Reuters . Retrieved July 15, 2024.
28. Collins, Leigh (11 January 2022). "How to make expensive green hydrogen commercially viable today — without subsidies | Recharge". Recharge | Latest renewable energy news. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022.

Bundled references

1. ^{[21] [22] [23] [24] [25]}

External links

• Official website