Microsoft has signed a $1.7 billion agreement for 12 years with a US-based startup not to scale up its AI and cloud services infrastructure, but to help meet its climate goals. As part of this deal with Vaulted Deep, the tech giant will buy human waste, manure, and other organic byproducts, collectively called bioslurry, and have them injected roughly 5,000 feet underground.
With this, it plans to remove 4.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from Earth. This deal comes hot on the heels of Microsoft expanding its AI data centre operations, which in turn is increasing its carbon footprint – around 23-30% between 2020 and 2024.
The company released around 75.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent from AI infrastructure. With the average cost of carbon removal being around $350 per ton, this deal is among the most significant investments yet in converting waste into carbon storage, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.
These emissions come not only from direct energy use but largely from indirect sources like the production of hardware, construction materials (steel, concrete), and supply chains, known as Scope 3 emissions. Despite this, the company plans to become carbon negative by 2030.
How will the startup turn sewage into carbon storage?
As per reports, storing Bioslurry underground will prevent natural decomposition that would otherwise release potent greenhouse gases like methane into the atmosphere. Methane is known to be at least four times more damaging than CO2 when it comes to global warming.
The deal also aims to mitigate other environmental risks as well, including the traditional ways of disposing of biosolids, such as spreading them on farmland. This method is not only responsible for water pollution but is also responsible for chemical contamination from substances like PFAS.
“We’re solving a surface-level problem by locking it permanently beneath the ground,” said Vaulted Deep CEO Julia Reichelstein in an interview with Inc.
Microsoft to remove historic emissions by 20250
Not just this, Microsoft has also committed to removing all its historical emissions by 2050. For this, the company has already purchased more than 83 million tons worth of carbon removal credits, with 59 million of those bought just this year.
Brian Marrs, Microsoft’s senior director of energy and carbon removal, called Vaulted Deep’s solution “scalable, low-risk, and truly permanent”. The agreement is the second-largest carbon removal deal ever made, just behind Microsoft’s $2.36 billion commitment to AtmosClear for 6.75 million tons over 15 years.
