Artificial intelligence is reshaping global infrastructure. Over just a few years, exploding demand for AI has triggered a massive buildout of data centers, power generation, fiber networks, and cooling systems. Tech giants are pouring tens of billions into infrastructure they know they’ll need years from now.
Carbon removal needs to be part of that plan from day one.
If AI is going to scale without sending corporate emissions soaring, carbon dioxide removal must be treated as a foundational component of the infrastructure stack. That means embedding CDR capacity into data center expansion now, with the same urgency and lead times used for power and cooling. Miss this window, and CDR will remain expensive and inaccessible precisely when companies need it most.
Carbon removal at commodity scale
By 2050, the world will need to remove five to 10 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide annually to stay on track for net zero. By 2050, the carbon dioxide removal industry could be worth up to $1.2 trillion annually, making it one of the world’s largest new commodity markets.
Just like oil required refineries, pipelines, and ports, carbon removal will require an industrial ecosystem: biochar pyrolysis machines, direct air capture plants, geological storage, monitoring systems, and more. McKinsey estimates that between $6 trillion and $16 trillion in cumulative investment will be required to build out carbon removal capacity, alongside a workforce up to 10 million strong.
But we are building nowhere near the pace required. The problem is less about technology and more about financing and demand. Suppliers are hitting bottlenecks, including permitting delays, limited access to capital, supply chain constraints, and uncertain demand signals. Without long-term commitments, projects struggle to secure financing or scale production.
The AI boom offers a critical window to fix this. As the tech industry builds unprecedented data center capacity and energy infrastructure, we have an opportunity to build carbon removal infrastructure alongside it.
Why AI infrastructure matters
Data centers planned for 2025-2030 will require massive electrical infrastructure, cooling systems, and supply chains. This creates a unique opportunity to co-develop CDR infrastructure.
Direct air capture plants can be co-located with data centers, using waste heat and shared electrical infrastructure. Enhanced weathering projects can utilize the same logistics networks that supply data center construction materials. Biochar facilities can be integrated into the renewable energy supply chains that power AI workloads.
More importantly, AI companies have the scale and certainty to provide the demand signals that CDR projects need. Microsoft has procured more than 30 million metric tons of carbon removal. Commitments like this create the revenue certainty that allows projects to secure financing and build at scale. Others like Google and Stripe have taken early steps of their own, totaling around 2.1 million metric tons so far.
But the total still represents less than 0.4% of the annual volume needed by mid-century. We have a long way to go.
Making CDR accessible beyond tech giants
The goal isn’t just to serve the tech giants; it’s to build infrastructure that can serve companies of all sizes. But this requires applying the same principles to carbon removal that are applied to building AI infrastructure:
- Capacity planning: Data center teams already model energy and cooling demand years ahead. They must also forecast emissions from future AI workloads and secure carbon removal capacity early, before supply becomes constrained.
- Procurement: AI infrastructure depends on long-term contracts for power and fiber. Carbon removal procurement should follow suit: multi-year offtake agreements with diversified portfolios of high-integrity suppliers.
- Budgeting: Infrastructure budgets allocate capital for power, HVAC, and compute as key inputs. Carbon removal must be treated not as a one-off corporate social responsibility expense, but as a required input to emissions-intensive growth.
- Reliability: No one bets on a single power provider. Carbon removal portfolios should reduce risk by diversifying methods and projects, backed up by rigorous measurement, reporting, and verification.
It’s not enough for individual companies to lead. The public and private sectors must work together toward a larger goal: laying the groundwork for infrastructure that makes carbon removal accessible to all market participants.
Regulatory requirements for CDR are already emerging in Europe and will likely follow in other jurisdictions. Carbon border adjustments may soon require CDR for trade compliance. Companies that wait to address CDR needs will face both supply constraints and premium pricing.
We’ve seen this before. Public support helped commercialize solar and wind, while large buyers like Google and Meta drove early PPA adoption. The combination brought down costs and built a foundation for the entire market. Carbon removal is on the cusp of a similar curve if early movers make the right infrastructure decisions. Governments must also act to speed up permitting, invest in enabling infrastructure, and integrate carbon removal into compliance frameworks.
Build now, or miss the window
The companies building AI infrastructure today have the opportunity, and responsibility, to ensure CDR infrastructure gets built alongside it — rather than waiting for broader market demand to develop.
Whether they’re preparing for future regulation or aiming to cool a planet that’s becoming too hot to do business, early movers are shaping the market and gaining access to high-quality supply. Buyers who wait to buy until 2049 will face premium pricing and limited access — or else find that the market didn’t scale in time.
We won’t get another moment like this. The AI buildout offers a unique alignment of capital, planning timelines, and technological ambition. The companies betting their future on AI should embed carbon removal into their infrastructure strategies. What we build today will determine whether carbon removal becomes one of the most consequential commodities of the 21st century — or a missed opportunity.
Michelle You is the CEO and co-founder of Supercritical, a carbon removal market for corporate buyers. The opinions represented in this contributed article are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the views of Latitude Media or any of its staff.
