NTT Data Buys Carbon Removal Credits from Climeworks
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- NTT Data Group agreed to buy an unspecified amount of carbon removal credits from Climeworks — the first such agreement between the Switzerland-based startup and a major AI infrastructure company, the firms shared exclusively with Axios.
- Climeworks co-CEO Christoph Gebald said the deal could provide a few hundred thousand tons of carbon removal over a decade, though the companies are not disclosing terms.
- The agreement includes both Climeworks' engineered direct-air-capture technology (large fans and filters that pull CO2 from ambient air) and cheaper nature-based credits the startup began procuring in 2024.
- NTT Data, a Japan-based data center giant with roughly 200,000 employees, reiterated its goal to zero out direct emissions from its data centers by 2030, with the Climeworks deal helping offset additional emissions by 2040.
- The deal lands as the carbon removal sector loses its biggest voluntary buyer — Microsoft recently paused new credit purchases — and no major company has yet stepped in to fill that void, according to two sector sources.
- Carbon Removal Alliance founding executive director Giana Amador said data center buildouts are driving increased interest in carbon removal because the offsets don't have to be built alongside a data center project.
- Climeworks' Gebald predicted cloud and AI providers could build the cost of carbon removal into their products, with enterprise customers — not end users — ultimately footing the bill.
Why it matters: This is the first carbon removal deal between a major AI infrastructure company and Climeworks, arriving just as Microsoft — previously the sector's biggest voluntary buyer — paused new purchases. With NTT Data (200,000 employees, one of the largest data center operators) signaling sustainability-driven demand, the deal could mark the start of a trend where enterprise AI customers, not providers, absorb the cost of offsetting compute emissions.
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