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Former Meta CTO launches $250 million climate investment fund amid contrarian market trends. Former Meta CTO Mike Schroepfer has raised a $250 million climate-focused fund to back innovative carbon removal, clean energy, and sustainability startups. Learn how the new fund aims to accelerate climate technology development and support long-term environmental solutions. Jun 2, 2026 - 12:16 Gigascale, the venture capital firm founded by former Meta CTO Mike Schroepfer, announced Monday that it has raised a new $250 million fund to support entrepreneurs focused on rebuilding what the firm calls the "physical economy." The latest fund will focus on sectors such as energy, grid infrastructure, and critical minerals, all within the broader climate technology landscape. By maintaining a strong climate-focused investment strategy, Gigascale is taking a path that contrasts with broader investor sentiment, which has become increasingly cautious about the climate-tech sector in recent years. The new vehicle represents Gigascale's second fund and largely continues the investment approach Schroepfer - widely known as "Schrep" - has pursued since launching the firm three years ago. During that period, Gigascale has invested in several prominent climate-tech companies, including Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Heron Power, Mill, and Form Energy. The firm grew out of Schroepfer's exploration of climate technology opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic. This latest fund is also notable as the company's first early-stage fund backed by institutional investors. Climate technology has always covered a broad range of industries, and Gigascale's portfolio reflects that diversity. However, in recent years, the sector has increasingly centred on energy production and infrastructure, a trend that has accelerated alongside growing demand for artificial intelligence technologies. As a result, energy has become a major priority for the new fund. Rising electricity consumption is creating opportunities for companies developing both new power-generation technologies and improved methods for delivering energy to businesses and consumers. Schroepfer highlighted solar power as a recent example of a clean-energy technology that has succeeded because it is both cost-effective and efficient, allowing it to gain market share rapidly. While solar energy and battery storage dominate many discussions around clean power, Schroepfer believes additional opportunities are emerging across the sector. The rapid growth of AI, combined with broader electrification trends, has increased pressure on existing grid infrastructure and made it more difficult for businesses to secure power connections. As a result, many organisations are exploring self-generated power solutions. Even there, however, supply remains constrained. Demand for natural gas turbines, for example, has created waiting lists that stretch into the early 2030s. That growing power shortage is creating opportunities for startups. Speaking on the Inevitable podcast last year, Schroepfer said that in energy-intensive industries, the ability to provide independent power sources could become a major competitive advantage. Companies capable of delivering electricity more cheaply, more flexibly, or both may gain a significant edge. Gigascale's investment strategy extends beyond power generation alone. The firm identified grid infrastructure, critical minerals, and physical AI systems as additional areas where it expects to find attractive opportunities. "The companies we back win because they're cheaper, faster, and more reliable," Schroepfer said in a statement. "That's how adoption scales. Climate impact is the result of better-performing systems." As investment trends continue to evolve, Gigascale is betting that businesses solving real-world infrastructure, energy, and industrial challenges will remain attractive opportunities, regardless of changing attitudes toward climate-tech investing.

Ultra-long duration energy storage, smart bins, and robots for nuclear operations: open innovation weekly 29.04.26. Published April 29, 2026 In this week's round-up, Springwise Intelligence Ltd. see two examples of how the AI boom is driving innovation with broader implications across sectors. The partnership between Meta and Noon Energy, which will bring storage capacity to data centres, is set to boost a technology that will be essential for balancing renewables-powered grids more generally. Meanwhile, the collaboration between AtkinsRéalis and Oxford University Robotics on physical AI for nuclear sites, both directly reflects how AI can boost operational efficiency and safety, and is the indirect consequence of a renewed interest in nuclear power brought about by the energy demands of AI. Lenovo and Imperial College London are also partnering on AI, reflecting growing industry-academia collaboration in this rapidly moving space. As ever, whether you're a corporate innovation professional looking to understand best practice, an academic staying on top of developments in industry, or a startup hoping to secure your first project, read on to stay on top of this week's news in the open innovation ecosystem. - Matt Hempstead, Commissioning Editor Pilots and contracts. Information and technology. Meta teams up with Noon Energy on 100+ hour energy storage for data centres. On 21st April, Noon Energy announced a partnership with Meta to apply its ultra-long duration energy storage technology to the tech giant's data centres. Specifically, Meta has agreed to reserve up to 1 gigawatt/100 gigawatt-hours of capacity, with an initial 25 megawatt/2.5 gigawatt-hour project due to be completed by 2028. Noon's technology stores energy for long periods of time through the use of solid-oxide fuel cells. Under this system, excess clean power is converted into a carbon-based storage media made from abundant materials in a 'charge tank', releasing oxygen in the process. In the 'discharge tank', meanwhile, the opposite process takes place - oxygen from the air converts the energy stored in the storage media back into electricity when it's needed. Ultra-long duration energy storage (technologies that store energy for multiple days or weeks at a time) is emerging as an important technology category as an increasing proportion of grid power comes from intermittent and seasonably variable renewables. In the world of data centres, such solutions are attractive as they provide a clean and quick-to-build option for securing a consistent power supply as hyperscalers scramble to build-out infrastructure to support the AI boom. Hospitality and food. Compass Group and Mill partner to bring smart food bins to commercial dining facilities. On 27th April, global food service and facilities management company Compass Group announced a first-of-a-kind strategic partnership with Mill, a US startup that has created an innovative bin that converts food scraps into a dry material that can be used as a soil amendment or animal feed. Beginning in 2027, the agreement will accelerate the deployment of Mill's bins across facilities operated by Compass, including the dining facilities of hospitals, universities, stadiums, and corporate campuses. In addition to recycling food scraps, all the Mill devices will be equipped with AI-powered waste characterisation technology that generates insights into what food is being discarded and in what quantities. This, in turn, will help to inform smarter procurement decisions that cut costs and reduce waste. This latter point is particularly important as Compass has made a public commitment to cut its food waste by 50 per cent (compared to 2017) by 2030. Globally, food loss and waste accounts for 8 to 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. According to Eurostat, restaurants and food services account for slightly over 11 per cent of the total food waste in the EU. This is significantly less than the 53 per cent of food waste that can be attributed to households, but it still represents a significant waste source that partnerships like this one are helping to address. Real estate. US airport to install innovative 'ice brick' technology. On 23rd April, Nostromo Energy - a developer of thermal energy storage for data centres and commercial buildings - announced that its 'IceBrick' technology has been selected for installation at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. IceBricks store cooling energy by creating ice in an array of capsules at off-peak times. By shifting cooling demand to periods of lower pricing or consumption, the IceBricks will decrease peak loads and operational costs, while also supplementing the airport's main plant with backup cooling capacity - allowing it to run with greater efficiency and reliability. Three IceBrick systems are set to be installed at the airport, and the project is expected top be completed this year. Air conditioning accounts for around 3 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and is set to be one of the largest drivers of power demand growth in the coming years. Solutions to run commercial cooling more efficiently are therefore crucial as businesses adapt to a warming world. Research collaboration. Energy and utilities. Partnership between AtkinsRéalis partners and Oxford University Robotics Institute to advance physical AI for nuclear. On 28th April, engineering services and nuclear company AtkinsRéalis announced it is teaming up with the Oxford Robotics Institute (ORI) at the University of Oxford to further the use of autonomous robots in the nuclear power and wider energy sectors. The partnership will begin by scaling established UK deployments, encompassing autonomous mobile inspection and robotic manipulation systems. These solutions will undergo rigorous testing and refinement within Oxford's cutting-edge robotics facilities, before being developed into field-ready systems through the nuclear engineering expertise of AtkinsRéalis. The new partnership builds on previous collaboration efforts between the two organisations that have seen the integration of ORI systems into AtkinsRéalis robotics platforms at nuclear sites, including Sellafield - one of Europe's largest industrial complexes. 'Physical AI' refers to systems and models that enable robots to perceive and understand physical environments and perform complex actions in the real world. It is a growing area of innovation, with Capgemini finding that two-thirds of organisations consider physical AI to be a high priority for the next three to five years. Nuclear technology too is undergoing something of a renaissance, driven in large part by the energy demands of AI, with European nuclear fission investment growing from $54 million in 2020 to $188 million in 2025. Information and communication. Lenovo to create new AI hub at Imperial College London innovation site. On 23rd April, Imperial College London announced that international tech company Lenovo will create a new branch of its Lenovo AI Technology Center (LATC) at Imperial's White City Deep Tech Campus. At this hub, Lenovo researchers will work with Imperial colleagues, focusing on the evolution of agentic AI, the real-world deployment of foundation models, and the co-ordination of intelligent systems across different environments. Know about a groundbreaking innovation partnership? Tip Springwise Intelligence Ltd. off by emailing [email protected]