Breakthrough Energy is an environmentalist advocacy group founded by Microsoft founder and left-of-center philanthropist Bill Gates. The company provides funding towards energy companies and organizations seeking to decrease carbon dioxide emissions. ¹

The organization has been criticized by other environmentalist advocates  for not investing enough in weather-dependent energy sources such as wind turbines and solar panels and instead puts focus on investments into other fields including nuclear fusion, carbon capture and sequestration, and imitation meat substitutes. ²

An affiliated group, Breakthrough Energy Foundation, previously donated to several left-of-center environmentalist groups in 2022. ³

Background

Bill Gates founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures in 2015 to fund zero-carbon-emission energy projects at the United Nations COP21 climate change conference. The initial group that joined with Gates included Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, Virgin Group head Richard Branson, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. ¹

In 2016, Gates and his fellow investors seeded the Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund with $1 billion to invest in new forms of zero-emission energy. Among the investors were Bezos, Silicon Valley venture capitalists John Doerr and Vinod Khosla, former hedge fund manager John Arnold, former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg, Alibaba founder Jack Ma, and a handful of others. ⁴

In 2023, the group was reorganized as Breakthrough Energy. In addition, Breakthrough Energy Ventures was formed to act as the group’s venture capital fund. One of its initiatives, the Catalyst program, funds large-scale energy projects in the deployment phase. ⁵

The group has policy teams and lobbyists who advocate for moving the world closer to “net zero” carbon dioxide emissions around the world. ⁵

2022 Summit

In 2022, Breakthrough Energy hosted a three-day summit in Seattle that included Bill Gates, Biden administration officials including then-U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, and Microsoft President Brad Smith. ⁶

2023 Annual Report

In November 2023, Breakthrough Energy issued its first annual report. As of 2023, the group had invested nearly $2 billion into more than 100 companies. The report identified three clean energy technologies that Bill Gates called “decarbonization fast-forward buttons” worthy of bigger investments and more attention: hydrogen fuel, carbon removal and storage, and smarter electrical grids. The report identified five areas that need zero-carbon emission solutions: electricity production; manufacturing, including steel and concrete; agriculture; transportation; and heating and cooling buildings. ⁶

Environmentalist Criticism

In July 2024, CleanTechnia editor Michael Barnard posted an article criticizing Breakthrough Energy claiming that the group’s failed investments were due to “the biases of the founding billionaires and resulting investment theses that don’t stand up to scrutiny.” ² Specifically, Barnard criticized the group for not investing more in weather-dependent, intermittent sources of energy such as wind turbines and solar panels. He also pointed out the group’s investments in zero-emission nuclear fission and fusion, claiming they were motivated by outdated “pro-nuclear, renewables-dismissive stances.” ² He also claimed that the group’s investments in carbon capture and sequestration were a “shell game of the fossil fuel industry” and that companies would use them to “extract more oil from the ground.”  ²

Leadership

Rodi Guidero is the executive director of Breakthrough Energy. Guidero also works as the managing partner of Breakthrough Energy Venture. According to the group’s website, he also works in Bill Gates’s private office. Prior to this he worked at BMGI (renamed Cascade Investment), the investment office for the Gates Foundation, and was also the general counsel for venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. ⁷

Finances

An affiliated group, Breakthrough Energy Foundation, previously reported $5,356,937 in revenue, $124,246,345 in expenses, and $151,460,317 in assets in 2022. ³

According to its 2022 990 form, the Breakthrough Energy Foundation donated to Center for Climate and Energy Solutions ($2,286,920), Climate Jobs National Resource Center Inc. ($6,800,000), Clean Air Task Force ($1,899,858), Climateworks Foundation ($2,000,000), Conservative Coalition for Climate Solutions ($450,000), Energy Futures Initiative ($1,992,000), Environmental Defense Fund ($1,904,995), Federation of American Scientists ($1,488,513), Great Plains Institute ($2,908,849), Just Solutions Collective ($750,000), Mission Possible USA Inc. ($1,200,000), Multiplier ($2,000,000), National Association of State Energy Officials ($625,000), National Audubon Society ($565,000), National Wildlife Federation ($999,999), Natural Resources Defense Council ($3,567,773), NREL Foundation ($5,488,950), Nuclear Innovation Alliance ($300,000), Resources For The Future ($1,627,354), Rocky Mountain Institute ($3,683,623), Aspen Institute ($497,340), Breakthrough Institute ($1,761,802), Partnership Project ($1,000,000), Third Way ($2,055,384), Union of Concerned Scientists ($800,000), and World Resources Institute ($354,000). ³

1.  Milman, Oliver. “Zuckerberg, Gates and Other Tech Titans Form Clean Energy Investment Coalition.” The Guardian, November 30, 2015. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/30/bill-gates-breakthrough-energy-coalition-mark-zuckerberg-facebook-microsoft-amazon
2. Barnard, Michael. “Breakthrough Energy Ventures Has Bad Investment Theses Therefore Bad Investments.” CleanTechnica, July 4, 2024. https://cleantechnica.com/2024/07/04/breakthrough-energy-ventures-has-bad-investment-theses-therefore-bad-investments/.
3. “Breakthrough Energy Foundation, Full Filing – Nonprofit Explorer.” ProPublica. Accessed July 15, 2024. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/853672460/202303199349324325/full.
4. Dolan, Kerry A. “Bill Gates Launches $1 Billion Breakthrough Energy Investment Fund.” Forbes, December 13, 2016. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2016/12/12/bill-gates-launches-1-billion-breakthrough-energy-investment-fund/.
5. Gates, Bill. “Why I Founded Breakthrough Energy.” Breakthrough Energy, September 13, 2023. https://www.breakthroughenergy.org/news/breakthroughenergyoriginstory/.
6. Stiffler, Lisa. “Inaugural Report from Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Reveals Promising Climate Tech Solutions.” GeekWire, November 13, 2023. https://www.geekwire.com/2023/inaugural-report-from-bill-gates-breakthrough-energy-reveals-promising-climate-tech-solutions/.
7. “Rodi Guidero.” Breakthrough Energy. Accessed July 15, 2024. https://www.breakthroughenergy.org/our-team/rodi-guidero/.