Co-founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures — a $1 billion climate tech fund

Gates co-founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures at the COP21 Paris climate conference alongside Jeff Bezos, Jack Ma, Richard Branson, and other investors, committing over $1 billion to early-stage companies developing zero-carbon technologies. The fund targets energy storage, green hydrogen, sustainable agriculture, low-carbon cement, and other hard-to-abate sectors that existing venture capital largely ignores. Gates designed it around a 20-year patient capital model, recognizing that the path from lab to market in energy is far longer than in software.
Source: https://www.breakthroughenergy.org/our-story/our-history
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March 2025
Breakthrough Energy Ventures Invests in Savor — Butter Made Directly from Carbon
Breakthrough Energy Ventures backed Savor, a startup that produces butter using carbon dioxide and hydrogen — derived from atmospheric carbon and water — without any conventional agriculture, animals, or farmland. Savor's thermochemical process generates saturated fat with an identical molecular profile to dairy butter while using an estimated 99.9 percent less water and zero agricultural land. The product launched at Michelin-starred restaurants in 2025, with supermarket availability targeted for 2027, as part of Gates's broader bet on food-system decarbonisation.
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Breakthrough Energy Catalyst Invests $40 Million in Deep Sky Carbon Removal
Breakthrough Energy Catalyst — Gates's industrial decarbonisation investment vehicle — committed $40 million to Deep Sky, a Quebec-based company developing commercial direct air capture facilities across Canada. The investment marked Catalyst's first in the DAC sector. Deep Sky's Alpha facility in Alberta is designed as a testing ground for multiple next-generation carbon removal technologies, with the goal of proving the cost trajectory needed to make DAC viable at planetary scale.
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