Musk Foundation-Backed XPRIZE Awards $100 Million for Carbon Removal
The grand prize winner provides crushed up rocks to farmers in the Global South that can help improve soil fertility and suck carbon from the air.
A farmer plucks shrubs in Uttar Pradesh, India.
Photographer: Anindito Mukherjee/BloombergAfter four years, the XPRIZE has winnowed down a list of 1,300 companies to choose the winners of its $100 million competition for startups that remove carbon from the atmosphere.
The teams in the competition hailed from 88 countries, reflecting the geographic diversity of carbon cleanup efforts. Houston-based Mati Carbon took home the $50 million grand prize for its technological advancements in what’s known as enhanced rock weathering. The 100-person startup applies finely crushed basalt on agricultural lands in India to accelerate a natural weathering process that permanently draws down atmospheric carbon dioxide.