First-of-a-kind compute pilot aims for carbon removal cost declines with $100 per ton target

Lithos Carbon, a carbon sequestration company that is trapping atmospheric CO₂ using the power of volcanic rocks, today announced it has been selected as a fellow in the second cohort of the Compute for Climate Fellowship. Launched by the International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence (IRCAI) and Amazon Web Services (AWS), the Compute for Climate Fellowship is a global program offering climate tech startups fully-funded proof of concepts using advanced cloud computing to solve some of the most complex challenges related to the climate crisis.

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Millions of tons of nutrient-rich volcanic basalt rock-dust, produced as a byproduct of the rock quarrying and aggregate industry. This material can safely and permanently remove and trap carbon dioxide for 10,000-100,000 years, while enriching soils and increasing crop yields on farms. (Photo: Lithos Carbon)

Lithos uses a high-quality, organic byproduct volcanic rockdust from the U.S. to sequester CO₂ from the atmosphere. This volcanic rockdust is spread over croplands, where it traps atmospheric CO₂ permanently while releasing nutrients into the soil and reducing the amount of fertilizer needed to keep farms flourishing. In partnership with the field’s leading academics, Lithos is also commercializing rigorous techniques for quantifying the precise quantity and speed at which their atmospheric carbon dioxide removal has been achieved.

​​This opportunity will support Lithos Carbon’s efforts to develop computational models that will accelerate carbon removal scalability and bring costs down to $100 per ton of CO₂ within the decade while maintaining rigorous quantification standards and field transparency. This new generation of models may be able to replace labor-intensive soil sampling and laboratory analysis to transparently achieve accurate large-scale inference within the decade, and scale carbon removal deployment across millions of acres. Lithos Carbon will leverage the computational capacity and world-class engineering team support AWS is offering to present a new model prototype in 2025.

This news follows Lithos Carbon being named a finalist in the XPRIZE Carbon Removal Challenge and a semifinalist in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Carbon Dioxide Removal Purchase Pilot Prize in May 2024, and an awardee of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Carbon Negative Shot Pilot program in October 2024.

“Society needs cost-effective carbon removal, and we’re thrilled to work with Amazon Web Services and the International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence as collaborators in scaling our catalytic, data-driven technology,” said Lithos Carbon’s CEO, Mary Yap. “Our mission is to work alongside farmers to transform cropland into carbon removal centers and remove a billion tons of CO₂ over a decade. This relationship represents an exciting step in reducing carbon removal costs to $100 per ton. By conducting this pilot, Lithos Carbon and our research partners will lay the groundwork towards megaton and gigaton carbon sequestration while sustaining quantification rigor and transparency. This quantum leap is what’s needed for our industry to scale.”

Dr. Elliot Chang, Head of Research Partnerships at Lithos Carbon, added, “We are incredibly honored to be part of this program, and to accelerate the development of much-needed predictive capabilities in quantifying climate impact from ERW alongside these luminaries of AI research. Our project develops the system and technologies needed to scale outcomes-based carbon removal while responsibly stewarding our natural resources to enrich communities and agricultural lands. To fully realize this new approach, we are using our commercial datasets — already the largest in the enhanced weathering industry — to calibrate a new generation of modeling approaches. We expect these new approaches will drive meaningful cost improvement in monitoring outcomes, delivering verified CO₂ removal, and achieving a scalable climate solution which society desperately needs.”

Each selected startup will engage in a 2 to 3 month build with one-on-one guidance from technical experts and AWS credits to cover the AWS service costs of the build. Both IRCAI and AWS will provide selected startups with a team of mentors who are experts in AI, sustainability, and ethics. Startups will also gain access to advanced computing services, such as quantum computing, high-performance computing (HPC), artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), and Generative AI.

“We are at a critical juncture, when Generative AI is accelerating ways to solve the world’s biggest challenges, including climate change. It is more crucial than ever that we support innovators who are bringing scalable solutions to life by pushing the frontier of what’s possible with technology,” said Jon Jones, Vice President and Global Head of Startups at AWS. “The startups we selected for the Compute for Climate Fellowship represent big, bold approaches to tackling some of the planet’s most urgent challenges, from clean fusion energy, to better ways to track biodiversity, to sustainable textiles, and more. AWS is honored to support these pioneers, equipping them with the latest in AI and advanced cloud computing to help turn their ambitious ideas into positive impact on our planet.”

For more information on the Compute for Climate Fellowship, visit https://ircai.org/compute-for-climate-fellowship/.

About Lithos Carbon

Lithos Carbon is a carbon removal company scaling Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) as a solution to the climate crisis. Lithos Carbon’s mission is to transform farmland into carbon capture centers — with the goal of removing billions of tons of atmospheric CO₂ while improving crop yields. Founded in March 2022 by repeat entrepreneurs and the world’s leading experts in atmospheric geochemistry, Lithos Carbon’s technology offers an optimization platform that permanently removes CO₂ from the atmosphere in a matter of human seasons rather than geologic millennia. Cost effective, immediately scalable, and empirically measured, Lithos Carbon’s deployments are custom designed on a field-by-field basis to improve yield, protect crops, and enhance soil conditions. Lithos Carbon’s partners in scaling carbon removal include Microsoft, Stripe, Google, McKinsey Sustainability, JP Morgan Chase, H&M Group, Autodesk, and others.

As of August 2024, Lithos Carbon has spread hundreds of thousands of tons of fine basalt rockdust in North America and is working with 100+ farmers over ten states. Lithos Carbon has collected more than 100,000 soil cores that are being used to validate accurate carbon removal in new regions. To learn more, visit www.lithoscarbon.com.

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