TLDR:
Key points:
- Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) was founded by Bill Gates and other billionaires 8 years ago to fund transformative technologies for climate change mitigation.
- A large percentage of BEV’s investments are criticized for being off the mark due to biased investment theses of the founders.
Article Summary:
Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), founded by Bill Gates and other billionaires, aimed to fund transformative technologies for climate change mitigation. While some of their investments are sound and have the potential to assist in combating climate change, a large percentage of their portfolio is deemed off the mark by critics.
Author Michael Barnard conducted an assessment of BEV’s existing portfolio and found that 38% of their investments make little sense. Despite this, a slight majority of BEV’s investments are in good companies aligned with real problems and doing useful work.
While some investments like Boston Metals, Electra, and QuantumScape are praised for their work in green steel, AI for mineral exploration, and solid-state batteries for EVs respectively, other investments like those in fission energy, fusion startups, and carbon capture and sequestration are criticized for being misaligned with the current climate solutions landscape.
Furthermore, BEV’s investments in fake food, inefficient heat-storage technologies, ill-conceived electricity storage strategies, and dead-end renewable energy technologies are pointed out as areas where the organization could have made more well-informed choices.
The article emphasizes the importance of having strong technical due diligence and investment theses based in reality for effective climate investments. It concludes that BEV’s biases and lack of deep understanding in certain areas have led to questionable investment decisions that may not significantly contribute to climate action.
