Anthropic becomes first AI start-up to join carbon removal coalition
What's the story
Anthropic, a leading artificial intelligence (AI) start-up, has joined Frontier, the carbon removal collective. The Claude AI-maker is contributing to a fresh $915 million funding tranche and making history as the first AI start-up to join the coalition. This new injection of capital nearly doubles Frontier's total commitments, raising the group's lifetime pledges to $1.8 billion.
Collective impact
Frontier has contracted nearly $700 million in carbon removal credits
Frontier has already contracted nearly $700 million across 50-plus projects to remove 1.8 million tons of carbon. Companies that have pledged money to Frontier usually use its carbon removal credits to offset their publicly listed carbon footprints. The new funding will strengthen Frontier's position in the industry, but Anthropic's membership is even more significant as it is the first pure AI company to join this group.
Founding members
Who are the founding members of Frontier?
Frontier was founded by tech giants like Stripe, Google, and Shopify to help them meet their climate pledges. The founding companies want to achieve zero emissions in the next decade or two but face challenges with certain emissions they can't eliminate today, such as air travel. Carbon removal credits supported by Frontier allow companies to continue emitting some pollution while offsetting it from their carbon footprint.
Strategic shift
Funding for future projects will come with more scrutiny
Frontier has said that funding for future projects will come with more scrutiny. The organization plans to fund fewer projects, focusing on those it thinks can remove a gigaton (1 billion metric tons) of CO2 or more per year. New contracts will be for around eight to 10 years. Since its inception in 2022, Frontier has supported various carbon removal technologies such as direct air capture, enhanced rock weathering, bio-oil ocean antacids, and bioenergy with carbon removal and sequestration.