气候技术中的人工智能（英）

EMERGING TECH RESEARCHAI in Climate Tech2025 is a new high-water mark for VC deal value inAI-linked climate tech Institutional Research Group John MacDonaghSenior Research Analyst,Carbon & Emissions Tech andClean Energy Tech pbinstitutionalresearch@pitchbook.com Published on January 20, 2025 PitchBook is a Morningstar company providing the most comprehensive, mostaccurate, and hard-to-find data for professionals doing business in the private markets. Contents Key takeaways Key takeaways Overview VC deal activity •2025 saw record-high VC investment driven by megadeals.In 2025, VC investmentin AI-linked climate tech surged to a record $6.6 billion, up 59% from 2024, despitea lower deal count—304 versus 377 in 2024. This growth was fueled by a handful Key segments adopting AI •Carbon tech applications led segment growth.The carbon tech segmentdominated with $2.6 billion in deal value, heavily influenced by Crusoe’s investment, •AI integration in climate tech is diverse and multi-layered.AI adoption spans awide range of climate tech applications, from deeply embedded capabilities likegeospatial analytics and energy optimization platforms to lighter integrations for •High-resolution datasets drive AI demand.Segments reliant on granular, complexdatasets—such as geospatial monitoring, weather forecasting, and power gridanalytics—are leading AI adoption in climate tech. These use cases highlight •Low-carbon datacenter solutions are emerging.As AI-driven workloads surge,datacenters’ carbon footprint is projected to rise significantly. VC-backed startupsare responding with innovations in cooling, energy management, and renewable Overview AI is increasingly becoming an enabler within the climate technology ecosystem.In this note, we focus on both VC-backed climate tech companies that embed AIdirectly into their core capabilities, and companies developing solutions that supportlow-carbon datacenter infrastructure, helping to decarbonize AI’s adoption in other Applying AI can bring deeper analysis of highly granular datasets, round-the-clockcondition, output, and demand monitoring, and integration of multiple data sources,allowing companies and asset owners to optimize the performance of renewableassets and storage, improve grid integration, and enhance the planning and siting ofsolar and other clean-energy projects. The number of applications of AI in climatetech means the breadth of AI adoption across the space varies considerably. Some The climate tech space includes several segments that are seeing particularly strong •Geospatial monitoring: Companies capturing and interpreting high-granularityspatial datasets covering broad areas. They use technologies like satellite,aerial, or drone imaging, sometimes incorporating hyperspectral data, and otherremote-sensing inputs, including ground-based sensing. AI is being applied •Weather forecasting and analytics: Startups advancing localized or high-resolutionweather prediction models, using AI to anticipate conditions that could affectphysical assets. These tools increasingly underpin risk products, including •Energy system and energy asset monitoring: AI is widely used to processtime-series data from energy-consumption devices, distributed energy resources,grid infrastructure, and storage systems. This ranges from utility-scale hardware While many companies in the space remain primarily software-focused,hardware-focused segments—such as renewable energy systems, energy storagetechnologies, and industrial equipment—are also integrating AI to improve efficiency. As cross-industry AI adoption grows, the climate tech landscape is also expanding toinclude companies focused on reducing the carbon footprint of AI itself. Datacenters VC deal activity Overall VC deal activity In 2025, VC investment in AI-linked climate tech saw strong growth driven by severallarge transactions, reaching a record $6.6 billion as of December 15. Even withoutdeals from the last two weeks of December, this represents a 59% increase overfull-year 2024 deal value. From a quarterly deal value perspective, the largest quarteron record is Q4 2025, buoyed by four megadeals exceeding $100 million, includingCrusoe’s $1.4 billion Series E, KoBold Metals’ $163.4 million Series C,2Valar Atomics’$130 million early-stage VC, and Exowatt’s $120 million Series A1. VC investment inclimate tech companies that leverage or support AI has changed significantly over the Deal count trends have been somewhat more stable in recent years. From 2017’s86 deals in the space, activity climbed steadily to 347 deals in 2021 and peaked at377 in 2024, with minimal fluctuation from 2021 to 2024. By December 15, 2025, Median VC deal value in the space has grown from $1.7 million in 2017 to $7.1 millionin 2025. This is higher than the median deal value for the carbon & emissions techspace, which peaked at $5.5 million in 2025, but lower than the 2025 median deal sizefor clean energy technologies, which peake