Climeworks operates the world’s largest direct air capture (DAC) facilities — machines that literally suck carbon dioxide out of the ambient air. The technology uses modular collector units containing a filter material that chemically binds CO2. Once saturated, the filters are heated to around 100 degrees Celsius to release pure CO2, which can then be permanently stored underground or used in industrial applications like carbonated beverages and synthetic fuels.
The company’s flagship plant, Orca, launched in Iceland in 2021 with a capacity to capture 4,000 tons of CO2 per year. Climeworks partnered with Carbfix, which dissolves the captured CO2 in water and injects it into basaltic rock formations where it mineralizes within two years. A much larger facility called Mammoth, also in Iceland, began operations in 2024 with a target capacity of 36,000 tons annually, representing a major step toward commercial scale.
Climeworks sells carbon removal credits to companies like Microsoft, Stripe, and Shopify — organizations that want verifiable, permanent removal rather than offsets based on avoided emissions. The Swiss company has raised over $800 million and employs roughly 500 people. The big challenge is cost — current DAC prices hover around $600-1,000 per ton — but Climeworks is working to bring that below $300 through engineering improvements, larger plant designs, and economies of scale as the carbon removal market matures.
