Artificial Intelligence Energy Demand Is Driving Climate Tech Investing
In 2024, energy surpassed transportation to become the leading sector. It comes as AI is booming.
A cooling tower at the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania. Microsoft has agreed to buy power from the reopened plant.
Photographer: Heather Khalifa/BloombergEnergy startups have overtaken the makers of electric cars and batteries as the top global climate tech investment for the first time since 2020. They’ve done so as the growing demand for artificial intelligence has driven interest in technologies that can power data centers with less emissions.
Venture funding for global energy startups totaled $9.4 billion last year, representing an increase of 12% from 2023 levels, according to a report published Tuesday by Sightline Climate, a market intelligence platform. Among them, funding for geothermal startups nearly tripled to $558 million, while nuclear investment almost doubled to $1.9 billion.