Building the Clean Intelligence Stack: Notes from New York Climate Week

New York Climate Week was fast and action-packed, once again! The energy in the rooms this year was all about "let's do this together." It's been an intense year for our ecosystem, and there was a deep sense of renewed strength, commitment, and focus.

‍

A few moments are still on our minds: our breakfast, Elemental’s event on data centers as a catalyst for climate innovation, and soundbites from Dawn’s conversations with Fortune, Heatmap, and The Atlantic.

Breakfast with Earthshot: Inside the Clean Intelligence Stack

On Wednesday morning, we hosted an intimate breakfast for a group of investors and longtime partners. We shared where Earthshot stands today and where we're headed next.

‍

It’s incredible to see that Fund I is well into the top quartile of venture funds of its vintage, with five unicorns: Etched, KoBold Metals, Mariana Minerals, Emerald AI, and Hubble, which announced its $1.5 billion valuation that day. AI is driving demand for the physical infrastructure that makes intelligence possible. We call this the clean intelligence stack, and it's where 80% of our investments are focused. We're seeing that conviction drive continued success, and looking ahead, we're especially excited about AI-powered engineering and robotics.

‍

Optimism was in the air, centered on the AI infrastructure boom. AI is not a panacea, but it is a massive opportunity to pull climate innovations into the market and to benefit the communities that data centers are built in. Our approach is resonating: climate is not a constraint on returns, but instead the opposite.

Data Centers as a Catalyst for Climate Innovation

More than 100 founders, funders, and partners joined us at Goals House to dig into the question on everyone's mind: can the data center boom become a climate tailwind? It was a chance to spotlight Elemental Impact’s newly launched Data Center Innovation Initiative and the incredible entrepreneurial interest we're seeing with over 400 applications in the first 30 days.

We heard from top sustainability leaders at Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, who said the rapid buildout has only accelerated their climate commitments. Their advice to entrepreneurs: come pilot with us! These companies are earnestly seeking the best innovations to sustainably power their facilities, and want to be first in.

We also heard from Tim Latimer, CEO of Fervo Energy, about what it's like to build at a time like this, and how he relied on multiple types of capital—from venture to philanthropy—to reach commercial scale. It's a sentiment we're hearing from many founders: the importance of a diverse capital stack, and the opportunity for investors to meet them where they are, with the right capital at the right time.

‍

The evening closed with Salesforce, JPMorganChase, and Builders Vision Philanthropy on the role catalytic capital can play to get promising climate tech off the ground.

Five More Highlights

→ The Nest Dawn spoke with Mike Schroepfer of Gigascale (formerly Meta CTO) and Allie Garfinkle of Fortune on the state of climate investing and why this moment belongs to the builders. She highlighted what makes Earthshot unique: "90% of the companies that Earthshot backs have generalist tech investors as our co-investors. We think it's really helpful to be a climate investor on the cap table of these companies, asking about social impact, asking about environmental impact. Sometimes we're the only ones in the room asking those questions." Read more in Fortune

‍

→ Heatmap House Dawn shared the stage with a lineup that included Al Gore and Chris Wright, offering her view on what's next for climate policy. On data centers, she said: "We all feel a little bit used by data centers. We thought, how can you actually use data centers to do the things that we need to do as society? Pulling forward clean energy technologies and sustainable technologies is one of the most interesting ways they can be a real service to society." Read more at Heatmap

‍

→ Female Founders and Funders The eighth edition of Female Founders & Funders brought hundreds of women who build and back climate tech together for the Monday of New York Climate Week, where we heard lightning pitches from founders and reconnected with old and new friends against a stunning view of the city.

‍

→ Super Climate We were encouraged by meeting several LPs attending their first Super Climate, a convening of fund managers and VCs focused on fostering strategic relationships across the capital stack. The long term trends towards climate tech have never been more clear, and the near term catalyst of the AI infrastructure buildout is pulling in new LPs.

‍

→ Elemental and Earthshot, together Our partnership goes well beyond shared deal flow, extending the services, policy work, and deep relationships Elemental has built over 17 years to Earthshot and its founders. That partnership came to life during Climate Week as we connected with shared portfolio companies and heard firsthand how our combined support is helping founders turn bold visions into projects, partnerships, and real momentum.

‍

For a fun send-off, watch Dawn sit down with Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, on his Most Interesting Thing in Tech podcast to share how AI and robotics can help the environment. Check out the solutions she highlighted.