Breakthrough Energy

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.

Breakthrough Energy

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

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]

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