Amazon is ready to go after clean energy
It seems like Amazon is everywhere these days, am I right? It's in grocery, foot ware, entertainment, tech (obviously) & more. This time, it's ready to use it's capital power by focusing on clean energy.
What's going on?
- Amazon has launched an in house venture capital fund that will invest in companies focusing on clean energy.
- The venture capital fund will start with $2 billion.
- The goal in all of this? To reach a "net zero" in carbon emissions by 2040.
“Each prospective investment will be judged on its potential to accelerate the path to zero carbon and help protect the planet for future generations.” - Jeff Bezos
Whoa!
- Global venture capital and private-equity investments in clean energy reached $10.5 billion in 2019. I'lll be curious to see what this number turns out to be in 5 years. Will other companies follow in Amazon's footsteps?
Thoughts/Takeaways
- The article touches on how Amazon has invested $100 million in The Alexa Fund - which focuses on startups working with voice activation and $700 million in a financing round to electric truck company Rivian (watch out, Elon!). I wonder what Amazon will do next? After the Whole Foods acquisition, anything is possible.
- An interesting term from the WSJ article was carbon offsets - projects outside normal company operations that can reduce emissions. I never knew companies participated in this or that is was a thing. You learn something new everyday!
- One question that comes to my mind, will Amazon focus more on this versus what their currently doing? But then I think about HOW BIG Amazon is and if they wanted to focus on clean energy it wouldn't take away from what their already doing. I think I'm right?
- I think this is pretty cool. This is a big step in helping the environment long term and in my opinion, nudges other companies to do the same or at least look into clean energy. Other companies don't need to be on the same level as Amazon but moving in the right direction is a great first step.
Have a great weekend!
Daniel R.