Anthropic becomes first AI startup to join Frontier

Anthropic has joined Frontier, a carbon removal collective, marking its arrival as the first artificial intelligence startup to join the group. The company is contributing to a new $915 million funding tranche, which nearly doubles total pledges to the coalition to $1.8 billion. Frontier, which was launched in 2022 by founding members including Stripe, Google, and Shopify, helps its members purchase carbon removal credits—financial instruments used to offset carbon footprints by funding technologies that extract and store carbon dioxide.

Since its launch in 2022, Frontier has backed a range of carbon removal technologies, including direct air capture—a process that extracts carbon dioxide directly from the air—enhanced rock weathering, bio-oil, ocean antacids, and bioenergy with carbon removal and sequestration. To date, the coalition has contracted nearly $700 million across more than 50 projects to remove 1.8 million tons of carbon. However, the organization is shifting its strategy to fund fewer, larger-scale initiatives. Future contracts will focus on projects capable of removing 1 billion metric tons of CO2 annually, with new agreements running around eight to 10 years. According to a Frontier spokesperson, any carbon removal company signing a new contract must “show a path to government subsidy/support” as the coalition plans to contract as far out as 2040.

The partnership represents Anthropic’s first climate-related deal. It comes at a time when AI companies face intense scrutiny over their energy buying sprees, “not all of which has been squeaky clean.” While Anthropic has yet to produce a sustainability report, its energy strategy has favored an “all of the above” approach, which often involves large purchases of “polluting power.” Despite these criticisms, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has asserted that carbon dioxide removal technology will be necessary if the world is to reach net zero emissions.

Why it matters

Anthropic’s entry into the carbon removal market highlights the growing pressure on AI companies to address their energy-intensive operations, moving beyond mere pledges to active participation in nascent climate technologies.