Anthropic joins Frontier carbon removal coalition as pledges reach $1.8B

In short: Anthropic has joined Frontier, a coalition that funds carbon removal projects, as Frontier announced $915 million in new pledges.

What happened

Anthropic, an AI startup, is joining Frontier, a group of companies that pool money to pay for carbon removal. Carbon removal means taking carbon dioxide, a heat trapping gas, out of the air and storing it so it does not warm the planet.

Frontier said the new $915 million in pledges brings its total commitments to $1.8 billion. Frontier also said it has already signed nearly $700 million in contracts across more than 50 projects, aiming to remove 1.8 million tons of carbon.

Frontier was founded by companies including Stripe, Google, and Shopify. Anthropic is described as the first AI focused startup to join, even though Google, a major AI company, is a founding member. According to TechCrunch, this is Anthropic’s first climate related deal, and the company has not yet published a sustainability report.

Frontier also said it plans to be more selective going forward. It expects to fund fewer projects and focus on those that it believes can scale to very large impact over time. It also said new contracts will typically run eight to ten years.

Why it matters

AI systems often run on large data centers, which can use a lot of electricity. For regular people, this news is a sign that some AI companies are starting to address the pollution linked to that energy use, at least partly, by paying for carbon removal credits (similar to paying to cancel out part of a footprint, like balancing a checkbook). It also highlights a bigger shift, where companies want carbon removal to grow, but may expect governments to help cover the costs in the long run.

Source: TechCrunch AI