XPRIZE’s $100 Million Carbon Removal Award: Innovation, Impact, and the Future of Climate Action

Inside the historic $100 million XPRIZE competition and the breakthrough solutions reshaping global carbon removal.

By Sneha Tete, Integrated MA, Certified Relationship Coach

Created on Sep 27, 2025

Inside the historic $100 million XPRIZE competition and the breakthrough solutions reshaping global carbon removal.

XPRIZE Carbon Removal: A Historic $100 Million Push for Climate Solutions

The climate crisis is the defining challenge of our time, fueled primarily by excess carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. While reducing emissions is essential, scientists agree that we also need to remove billions of tonnes of CO₂ from the air and oceans to limit global warming to manageable levels. This urgent need catalyzed one of the largest incentive competitions in history — the XPRIZE Carbon Removal — which awarded $100 million for breakthrough solutions to scalable and sustainable carbon capture.

The Genesis and Scope of the XPRIZE Carbon Removal Competition

Launched: Earth Day, 2021
Duration: Four years, concluding Earth Week 2025
Primary Goal: Catalyze gigaton-scale CO₂ removal industry and tackle climate change
Funding: $100 million by Elon Musk and Musk Foundation
Scope: Attracted over 1,300 teams from 88 countries

The competition invited innovators worldwide to devise and demonstrate technologies that can durably and safely remove CO₂ from the atmosphere or oceans. Solutions had to fulfill rigorous testing criteria, including real-world removals of 1,000+ tonnes of net CO₂ and provide pathways to future billion-tonne scale-up.

Why Carbon Removal Is Critical: Scientific and Economic Imperatives

Atmospheric CO₂ has reached dangerous levels, driving rising global temperatures and climate instability. Experts emphasize that, even if emissions fall, carbon removal is necessary to:

Meet the 2°C threshold — the tipping point deemed critical by climate scientists for global stability
Offset unavoidable emissions from industry, agriculture, and transportation
Rebalance climate systems and restore depleted ocean and soil carbon pools{1}

Developing reliable carbon removal technologies is not just about winning prizes; it’s about unlocking an industry that could reverse centuries of overconsumption and pollution, supporting climate resilience and economic opportunities globally.

How the Competition Worked: Criteria and Milestones

Demonstration Scale: Teams had to remove at least 1,000 net tonnes of CO₂ in the final year
Scalability: Show viable modeling for megatonne (million-tonne) and gigatonne (billion-tonne) capacity
Sustainability: Demonstrate environmentally safe, cost-effective procedures
Monitoring and Verification: Accurate tracking and reporting of CO₂ removal for reliability

Twenty finalists advanced to a final demonstration phase, after which the judges selected winning approaches based on safety, cost, impact, and scalability.

Winners and Projects: Who Led the Carbon Removal Revolution?

Team	Prize	Country	Core Technology
Mati Carbon	$50 Million	USA (operating globally)	Enhanced Rock Weathering
NetZero	$15 Million	France/Brazil	Biochar from crop residues
Vaulted Deep	$8 Million	USA	Biomass Carbon Removal & Storage (BiCRS)
UNDO Carbon	$5 Million	UK/Canada	Enhanced Rock Weathering
Planetary	$1 Million	Canada	Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement
Project Hajar	$1 Million	Global Partnership	Direct Air Capture & Mineralization

Grand Prize Winner: Mati Carbon

Mati Carbon’s award-winning approach uses enhanced rock weathering—spreading finely crushed basalt across agricultural fields to mimic natural CO₂ absorption and mineralization. This technique not only locks away carbon forever but also enriches farmland for smallholder farmers, increasing crop yields and soil health.
Key factors in their victory included:

Robust monitoring and verification protocols
Operational scalability and low environmental footprint
Direct economic benefits for farmers in India, Tanzania, Zambia, and beyond

The project aims to remove 100 million tonnes of CO₂ by 2040, empowering more than 100 million smallholder farmers worldwide.

Runner-Up Teams: Diversity in Approach

NetZero (France/Brazil): Converts tropical crop residue into biochar, a stable form of carbon that’s buried in soil, simultaneously boosting soil fertility and capturing carbon. Their circular model partners with local farmers for distributed resilience.
Vaulted Deep (USA): Stores organic waste deep underground—permanently isolating CO₂ using engineered landfill techniques. This approach solves two problems: organic waste management and durable carbon storage.
UNDO Carbon (UK/Canada): Accelerates rock weathering in Scotland and Canada, locking away atmospheric CO₂ and improving soils for agriculture.
Planetary (Canada): Enhances ocean alkalinity to stimulate natural CO₂ absorption. Their pilot projects are advancing the science of marine carbon management.
Project Hajar (Aircapture & 44.01 partnership): Innovates in direct air capture and mineralization, physically extracting CO₂ and turning it into stable minerals.

Scientific Impact: How Winning Solutions Remove CO₂

Enhanced Rock Weathering: Accelerates the natural breakdown of silicate rocks. When basalt is spread on croplands, it reacts with atmospheric CO₂ and converts it to stable minerals, locking it away for millennia.
Biochar: By roasting crop residues in low-oxygen (pyrolysis) conditions, carbon is stabilized into biochar and sequestered in soil, reducing emissions and improving agriculture.
Biomass Carbon Removal & Storage: Waste biomass is buried underground where it decomposes without releasing greenhouse gases; a durable form of sequestration.
Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement: Increasing alkalinity in marine environments enables seas to absorb and hold more CO₂, counteracting ocean acidification and climate change.
Direct Air Capture and Mineralization: Machines capture CO₂ from air, then convert it to solid minerals for permanent sequestration.

Catalyzing a New Industry: Innovation, Collaboration and Investment

XPRIZE Carbon Removal did more than award money—it kickstarted a new industry, inspiring collaboration between scientists, engineers, investors, and communities:

Stimulating R&D: Accelerated innovation in monitoring, verification, modeling, and scaling methods
Global Collaboration: Teams from 11 countries developed site-specific carbon removal suited for different climates and geographies
Industry Formation: Fostered startups, new academic fields, and supply chains for carbon management
Economic Empowerment: Many winning solutions directly support farmers and local economies

Challenges: From Small-Scale Pilots to Gigatonnes

Scaling carbon removal faces hurdles:

Verification: Reliable, transparent CO₂ accounting is essential to prove permanent removal
Cost: Technologies must become affordable for industries and governments to adopt at scale
Environmental Safety: Approaches must avoid ecological harm or unintended consequences
Societal Acceptance: Involvement of farmers, landowners, and communities is crucial for roll-out

The XPRIZE competition forced teams to confront these barriers, showing pathways to mainstream adoption.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: Why is carbon removal necessary in addition to emissions reductions?

A: Even with rapid cuts in emissions, some sectors will continue to produce CO₂. Carbon removal is vital for balancing the carbon budget and reversing historic accumulation.

Q: What makes Mati Carbon’s approach so scalable and sustainable?

A: Mati Carbon leverages widespread agricultural land and cheap, abundant basalt to remove CO₂ at a low cost and improves farmer incomes, making rapid global scale-up feasible.

Q: Are there risks with carbon removal technologies?

A: Each technology must be carefully assessed for safety. Enhanced rock weathering and biochar have demonstrated low ecological impact, but marine and underground storage methods must be monitored for long-term effects.

Q: How soon can these technologies make a big impact?

A: Industry formation is underway. Mati Carbon and other winners already operate at pilot scale; expansion to megatonne and gigatonne levels is expected within the next decade with added investment and policy support.

Q: How were the winners selected?

A: Each winner met rigorous removal, verification, scalability, safety, and cost criteria, and demonstrated technology solutions at kilotonne scale over a year.

Key Insights and Lessons from XPRIZE Carbon Removal

Largest-ever prize: $100 million is a landmark investment in climate innovation
Diversity of solutions: No one-size-fits-all; multiple methods are needed for different environments
Community engagement: Farmer-centric solutions (e.g., Mati Carbon, NetZero) prove that local participation accelerates adoption and impacts
Global collaboration: Success came from partnerships crossing borders and disciplines
Scalability focus: Emphasis on gigatonne-level pathways forced realistic modeling and business planning

Conclusion: Toward a Carbon-Removed Future

The XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition marked a turning point for climate solutions and global environmental collaboration. With the winning technologies now proven at scale, the world has a roadmap to remove billions of tonnes of CO₂—restoring ecosystems and building resilient economies. As climate threats rise, the lessons, partnerships, and innovations forged in XPRIZE offer hope and direction for policymakers, investors, and citizens worldwide.

Climate action now has powerful new tools—born out of competition, ingenuity, and the shared goal of securing a sustainable future.

References

Author

Sneha TeteBeauty & Lifestyle Writer

Sneha is a relationships and lifestyle writer with a strong foundation in applied linguistics and certified training in relationship coaching. She brings over five years of writing experience to thebridalbox, crafting thoughtful, research-driven content that empowers readers to build healthier relationships, boost emotional well-being, and embrace holistic living.

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