Anthropic is joining Frontier, the carbon removal collective, contributing to a new $915 million tranche of funding and marking its arrival as the first AI startup to join the group.
The new funding nearly doubles pledges to Frontier, bringing the total to $1.8 billion. So far, Frontier has contracted nearly $700 million across more than 50 projects to remove 1.8 million tons of carbon. Companies that have pledged money to Frontier typically use the company’s carbon removal credits to reduce their publicly listed carbon footprints.
The new funding will help bolster Frontier’s position in the carbon removal industry, but more notable are Anthropic’s pledges. While Google is a founding member, Anthropic is the first pure AI company to join the ranks. Its membership comes at a time when AI companies have been on an energy buying spree, not all of which has been squeaky clean.
Joining Frontier is Anthropic’s first climate-related deal. The company has yet to produce a sustainability report, and it has said it favors an “all of the above” approach to energy, a statement which typically translates into large purchases of polluting power. But the move might signal changing attitudes within the company.
