CULVER CITY, CA – (April 22, 2026) - XPRIZE, the world’s leader in designing and operating large-scale incentive competitions to solve humanity’s grand challenges, today released the XPRIZE Carbon Removal Post-Prize Impact Report on the anniversary of the grand prize award of the largest incentive competition in history. The report reveals how the $100M XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition helped transform carbon removal from a conceptual field into a credible, investable sector—now at a critical inflection point—and highlights progress to date, including hundreds of companies created, thousands of skilled jobs generated, and over $3.3B in capital unlocked.

Launched in 2021, XPRIZE Carbon Removal catalyzed the development of a new generation of carbon removal solutions that laid the groundwork for an emerging carbon removal market, with billions of dollars in contracted carbon credit purchases. The four-year competition was designed to combat climate change by challenging teams around the world to develop high-quality carbon dioxide removal (CDR) solutions that are scalable to gigatonne level and durably and sustainably remove carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere and oceans. 

“Despite the headwinds facing carbon markets in 2026, the need for climate action—including durable carbon removal at gigaton scale—has never been more urgent,” said David Babson, Executive Vice President of the Energy, Climate, & Nature Domain at the XPRIZE Foundation. “XPRIZE Carbon Removal has shown that viable carbon removal pathways do exist and that the field is moving beyond technical validation and early demonstrations towards commercial readiness. The prize catalyzed a pipeline of demonstrated solutions and investable companies, building the capacity needed to meet the stronger demand signals that will be required to scale carbon removal to the level necessary to help stabilize our climate.”

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:

• Accelerating Innovation: 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.
• Driving Investor Confidence: 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.
• Real-World Climate Impact: 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.
• Mobilizing Unprecedented R&D at Scale: The $100M prize purse helped to catalyze over $300M in R&D in the space that may not have occurred otherwise.

“The real impact of XPRIZE is never the moment the prize is awarded—it’s what happens next,” said Anousheh Ansari, Chief Executive Officer, XPRIZE. “Carbon Removal is already demonstrating how incentive competitions can unlock entirely new industries, mobilize billions in capital, and turn bold ideas into global solutions. The proof is in—now it’s time to scale what works.”

XPRIZE Carbon Removal galvanized over 1,300 teams from over 88 countries to deploy new demonstrations of CDR across four removal pathways - air, rocks, ocean, and land. Over the course of the competition, $5M was awarded to student teams and $15M in Milestone Awards supported early-stage demonstrations, followed by $80M in prizes awarded to finalist teams—including the $50M grand prize awarded to Mati Carbon. The grand prize-winning solution demonstrated a highly durable approach to CDR by applying finely crushed basalt to agricultural lands in India, accelerating a natural weathering process that permanently removes atmospheric CO₂.

XPRIZE Carbon Removal was funded by the Musk Foundation.

Learn more and get involved at xprize.org.

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XPRIZE is the recognized global leader in designing and executing large-scale competitions to solve humanity's greatest challenges. For over 30 years, our unique model has democratized crowd-sourced innovation and scientifically scalable solutions that accelerate a more equitable and abundant future. Donate, learn more, and co-architect a world of abundance with us at xprize.org