On July 21, 2020, Microsoft announced its first investment from a $1 billion climate fund aimed at investing in early-stage clean energy technology.[1] Microsoft announced the climate fund in January 2020 to support low-carbon technologies and achieve its goal of becoming “carbon negative”[2] by 2030.[3] The $50 million investment will go to Energy Impact Partners’ (EIP) global platform for innovation of new technologies. EIP is a New York-based investment firm that has served as a link between renewable energy startups and several of the U.S.’s largest utilities, including Southern Company and Xcel Energy. EIP manages about $1.2 billion in assets and has invested in a wide array of technologies such as smart home thermostats and software services for solar and gas pipeline projects. One of its notable investments was Greenlots, an electric vehicle charging software provider that was later sold to Royal Dutch Shell PLC. According to spokespeople for the Microsoft, the company will not take a direct stake in any startups as part of this investment, though it may take advantage of debt or equity if a startup was successful.

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-21/microsoft-nike-unilever-announce-global-carbon-neutral-group

[2] “carbon negative” here means that Microsoft plans to reduce their carbon footprint to less than neutral (i.e. removing carbon from the atmosphere)

[3] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/sustainability/climate-innovation-fund