$100M Prize For Carbon Removal
$100 Million
Prize Purse
XPRIZE Carbon Removal aimed to tackle the biggest threat facing humanity - climate change. It took place over the course of four years, launching on Earth Day 2021 and concluding during Earth Week 2025.
The grand prize winner and runner-up teams, representing solutions across four countries, each successfully removed more than 1,000 net tonnes of CO2 in the final year of the competition, meeting XPRIZE’s bold demonstration requirements, the first step towards scaling sustainably to remove billions of tonnes globally.
Overview
THE WINNERS OF XPRIZE CARBON REMOVAL
GRAND PRIZE WINNER
Grand prize winner Mati Carbon demonstrated a highly durable approach to CDR, by applying finely crushed basalt over agricultural lands in India to accelerate a natural weathering process that permanently draws down atmospheric CO₂. Beyond carbon removal, Mati Carbon’s process delivers significant benefits to smallholder farmers. These farmers are among the least responsible for and the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Mati Carbon’s deployments bolster farmers’ livelihoods through improved soil health, reduced agricultural inputs, and increased income at zero cost to them. Mati Carbon’s team has developed a scientifically rigorous approach to monitoring and verification, and excelled across each of XPRIZE’s prize evaluation criteria – operational, sustainability, and cost metrics – giving the XPRIZE judges the highest confidence in Mati Carbon’s solution’s long-term scalability.
RUNNER UP TEAMS
NetZero
$15 Million
Vaulted Deep
$8 Million
UNDO Carbon
$5 Million
NetZero, a French biochar company operating in Brazil, earned recognition as first runner-up and $15M for a highly efficient circular model to source and process tropical crop residues, then returning the biochar to local farmers to improve crop yields and resilience. Vaulted Deep, a U.S.-based waste management company, earned recognition as second runner-up and $8M for permanently storing otherwise unusable organic waste deep underground. UNDO Carbon, an enhanced rock weathering solution operating in Scotland and Canada, earned recognition as third runner-up and $5M for accelerating the natural process of rock weathering to permanently remove atmospheric CO₂ and boost soil health.
XFACTOR AWARD WINNERS
Planetary
$1 Million
Project Hajar
$1 Million
XFACTOR Awards were given to Planetary and Project Hajar for demonstrations that came closest to meeting XPRIZE’s stringent competition requirements in Air and Ocean pathways. Planetary’s solution, with operations in Canada, enhances the ocean’s natural ability to fight climate change through ocean alkalinity enhancement; Project Hajar, a partnership between Aircapture and 44.01, removes atmospheric CO₂ using direct air capture and mineralizes it in peridotite rock formations deep underground in the United Arab Emirates’ Hajar mountains.
Over the course of the competition, $5M was awarded to student teams, and $15M in Milestone Awards were granted to teams with early demonstrations of their CDR solutions.
XPRIZE Carbon Removal is the largest global incentive competition award in history, with a total prize purse of $100 million.
