Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy bets these 21 startups will shape energy’s future

Despite Grosh’s departure, this cohort still hews to the formula that defined previous years. “We’re always always right on the line that you’re not going to fund things that are silly, but the name of the game here is to take some big bets and hope to get some big payoffs,” Toone said.

Some of the incoming fellows certainly qualify as big swings. 

Among them is Borealis Fusion, a startup that’s pursuing fusion power using proton-boron fuel, which is widely available, but challenging to heat to the temperatures required to ignite fusion reactions.

Despite the long-shot nature of proton-boron fusion, the potential upside is significant. “If they can do it, you could get to much lower cost of energy,” Gaddy told TechCrunch. Another fusion startup, StarWarden, is working on heat management technology for future reactors.

Other startups, including Bedrock Semiconductor, K1 Semiconductor, and Vari Flux, are working on ways to squeeze more efficiency out of semiconductors and data centers. K1, for example, is developing a new, more efficient method to process key semiconductor materials, including gallium nitride and silicon carbide. “You could reduce the cost of these power electronics by maybe 50%, maybe more,” Gaddy said.

Breakthrough Energy is also placing bets on agriculture and critical minerals, including molecular sensing techniques to detect crop disease and robotics systems to harvest minerals from the ocean floor while minimizing disturbance.

It’s also supporting several startups, including AmyHyTech and Ammovolt Energy, that are developing ways to use and transport hydrogen with ammonia.

“Hydrogen is the Swiss army knife of energy. If you have enough hydrogen, and importantly if its cheap enough, you can do anything,” Toone said. But the infrastructure to move it around doesn’t exist. “There’s pretty close to zero installed capacity in this country,” he said. “There’s no simple way to move hydrogen around, and ammonia offers a potential way to do that.”

But for all the startups focused on decarbonization, this year’s fellows class has a number that are working to help humanity adapt to a warmer climate. 

“I think that folks really hoped that we were going to be able to decarbonize faster than we were able to,” Toone said. “It’s going to take longer and it’s going to be harder than we thought, and that absolutely leads you directly to adaptation.”