The XPRIZE carbon innovation winners represent four different approaches to carbon removal: air, rocks, ocean, and land-based solutions.
XPRIZE has awarded its largest-ever prize of $100 million to companies that developed ways to remove carbon dioxide from the air and oceans. The XPRIZE carbon innovation winners, announced April 23 during Earth Week, proved they could remove over 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide in the competition’s final year.
Mati Carbon won the $50 million top prize for their solution that uses crushed basalt rock spread on farmland in India. This process naturally pulls carbon dioxide from the air and locks it away permanently. The company stood out among all XPRIZE carbon innovation winners for their scientifically rigorous approach to monitoring and verification.
The four-year competition aimed to find real solutions to climate change by encouraging companies to develop methods that can remove carbon dioxide on a massive scale. Scientists agree that reducing emissions alone won’t be enough to prevent dangerous temperature increases.
“We cannot stabilize our climate without safely extracting carbon from our atmosphere and oceans at large scales,” said Anousheh Ansari, CEO of XPRIZE.
Carbon dioxide is the main driver of climate change. Human activities like burning fossil fuels release too much of this gas, trapping heat in our atmosphere.
Without removing existing carbon dioxide, experts warn that average global temperatures could rise more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels. This would lead to worse droughts, higher sea levels, and more extreme weather events.
The competition helped create an industry that barely existed before. In just four years, a $3.9 billion market has emerged for high-quality carbon removal. The XPRIZE carbon innovation winners represent the leading edge of this new industry.
Mati Carbon’s winning approach delivers benefits beyond just removing carbon. Their method helps small farmers in India improve soil health while reducing the need for other farming inputs.
“Being named the grand prize winner isn’t just a validation of our approach. It also represents a major boost to building the science and infrastructure needed for our mission,” said Shantanu Agarwal, Founder and CEO of Mati Carbon.
Their company partners with thousands of small farmers in India, Tanzania, and Zambia. These farmers face serious threats from climate change despite having contributed little to causing it.
Three runner-up teams also received substantial prizes. NetZero won $15 million for their biochar solution in Brazil. They process tropical crop waste into biochar that farmers can use to improve crop yields.
Vaulted Deep received $8 million for their method of storing organic waste deep underground. UNDO Carbon earned $5 million for their rock weathering solution in Scotland and Canada.
Two additional awards of $1 million each went to companies working on ocean-based and air-based carbon removal. Planetary enhances the ocean’s natural ability to fight climate change through a process called ocean alkalinity enhancement.
Project Hajar, a partnership between Aircapture and 44.01, captures carbon dioxide directly from the air. They then inject it deep underground into rock formations in the United Arab Emirates’ Hajar mountains.
Twenty finalist teams were selected in May 2024 to demonstrate their solutions over a one-year testing period. Judges evaluated their ability to remove carbon and the potential to scale up their methods. All twenty finalists performed exceptionally well and represent the diversity of approaches needed to address climate change.
“We’re incredibly proud of all the teams whose work helped advance the carbon removal industry,” said Nikki Batchelor, executive director of XPRIZE Carbon Removal.
The competition attracted over 1,300 teams from 88 countries. Half of these teams formed specifically to compete for the prize. More than 8,400 people contributed to developing solutions across four removal methods: air, rocks, ocean, and land.
XPRIZE has a history of promoting carbon management solutions. A previous $20 million competition challenged companies to capture industrial carbon dioxide emissions and convert them into useful products. The current XPRIZE carbon innovation winners build upon this legacy of climate technology advancement.
The winning technologies from that earlier contest now help reduce the carbon footprint of concrete and other building materials.
This latest prize builds on that work. According to XPRIZE’s annual report, almost $28 billion has been invested in the circular carbon industry, with $6.6 billion in 2024 alone.
Carbon removal differs from carbon capture. Removal takes existing carbon dioxide out of the air or water. Capture stops carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere in the first place.
Both approaches are necessary, but removal addresses the excess carbon dioxide already in our environment. The XPRIZE carbon innovation winners demonstrated practical methods for this critical task.
The winners were recognized at the TIME100 Summit in New York, where XPRIZE served as a supporting partner. The announcement coincided with Earth Week, highlighting the environmental focus of the competition.
David Babson, executive vice president of Climate and Energy at XPRIZE, called the announcement “a monumental milestone for the climate movement at large.”
The competition shows how prizes can speed up innovation. By offering a large reward, XPRIZE motivated teams to develop and demonstrate working solutions in just four years.
These solutions represent diverse approaches that can work in different regions around the world. No single method will solve the climate crisis, but together they offer hope for meaningful action.
Removing carbon at the scale needed to impact climate change remains a major challenge. The winning teams demonstrated they could remove thousands of tons, but billions of tons must be removed annually to make a difference.
The competition helped prove that carbon removal can work in the real world. Now the focus shifts to making these solutions affordable and scalable enough to deploy worldwide. The success of the XPRIZE carbon innovation winners marks just the beginning of what must become a global effort.
