A year ago, the XPRIZE Foundation awarded the winners of the $100 million XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition—an ambitious global challenge designed to help stabilize the climate and avoid a major climate crisis. The prize called on teams to develop durable, scalable solutions capable of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or oceans and storing it safely and permanently. 

Now, on the anniversary of that landmark award—and just in time for Earth Day—XPRIZE released its Carbon Removal Post-Prize Impact Report [LINK]. The report shows how the competition helped transform carbon removal from a largely conceptual idea into a credible, investable sector—one now approaching a critical inflection point.

With global demand for carbon removal accelerating and climate targets tightening, the question is no longer whether the industry will scale, but how fast.

From Idea to Industry

XPRIZE Carbon Removal is already making a measurable impact. The competition helped catalyze growth across the carbon removal sector—spurring the creation of hundreds of companies and generating thousands of skilled jobs. What began as a $100M competition has now unlocked more than $3.3B, evidence that serious capital is moving off the sidelines.

Over half of the 1,334 registered teams were founded after the prize launched, and dozens are now operating pilot projects or commercial deployments across six continents. The report demonstrates continued impact fueled by the competition including:

Fostering Innovation & Creating and R&D Surge

During the four-year prize period (2021–2025), teams filed 875 patents—a nearly tenfold increase in the annual rate of innovation, representing a 958% surge in filings. Additionally, the $100M prize purse helped to catalyze over $300M in R&D in the space that may not have occurred otherwise

Driving the Flow of Capital

Structured milestones and third-party validation led to 464% increase in average deal size and 176% increase in the number of unique investors backing competing teams. During and following the prize period, participating companies raised $3.3B in capital— representing a 33x Prize-Purse Return on Investment relative to the $100M purse.

Taking out Tonnes

Over the course of the competition, the 136 Distinguished Teams collectively removed 243,552 tonnes of CO2 and sold 9,475,438 tonnes of carbon credits (inclusive of future deliveries of tonnes removed), with purchases from major companies including Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, Stripe, Shopify, Meta, McKinsey, BCG, JP Morgan and more.

A Climate-Focused Future

Grand prize winning team, Mati Carbon and other finalist and competing teams find their solutions operational and marketable, helping drive the world to a cleaner and more climate-safe future. The real impact starts after the prize. These next few months and years will determine how fast carbon removal scales to meet the moment.

For more information, view the full  XPRIZE Carbon Removal Post-Prize Impact Report