Exclusive: Data center firm inks carbon removal deal as AI demand surges

```json { "title": "NTT Data Buys Carbon Credits From Climeworks as AI Strains Data Center Emissions", "metaDescription": "NTT Data has agreed to buy carbon removal credits from Climeworks as AI-driven energy demand pushes data center emissions under intense scrutiny in 2026.", "content": "<h2>NTT Data Signs Carbon Removal Deal With Climeworks Amid AI Energy Surge</h2><p>Japan-based NTT Data Group has agreed to purchase carbon removal credits from Swiss direct air capture startup Climeworks, the two companies exclusively shared with Axios on April 30, 2026. The deal arrives at a pivotal moment: surging energy demand from artificial intelligence is intensifying scrutiny of data center emissions worldwide, and the carbon removal sector — still fragile and heavily concentrated — is actively seeking to broaden its corporate buyer base.</p><p>The amount of credits involved was not disclosed. But the partnership signals that major data center operators are beginning to look beyond renewable energy procurement and traditional offsets toward more durable, engineered carbon removal solutions as their climate commitments come under growing pressure.</p><h2>What the Deal Means for NTT Data's Climate Commitments</h2><p>NTT Data is one of the world's largest data center operators. The company describes itself as a "$30+ billion business and technology services leader, serving 75% of the Fortune Global 100," with more than 160 data centers operating in over 20 countries. In Japan alone, NTT already claims to be the country's biggest data center operator, with total capacity currently at 300 megawatts spread across all 47 of the country's prefectures.</p><p>The company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of NTT Holdings on September 30, 2025, following the completion of a tender offer. It has also committed to a $10 billion investment aimed at expanding its Global Data Centers division through 2027, securing land across North America, Europe, and Asia to support nearly a gigawatt of planned capacity.</p><p>On climate, NTT Data has signed The Climate Pledge — co-founded by Amazon and Global Optimism in 2019 — committing to net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, a full decade ahead of the Paris Agreement's 2050 goal. More specifically, the company has set targets to deliver net-zero emissions across its data centers by 2030, its offices by 2035, and its entire value chain by 2040. The Climeworks deal is a concrete step toward the 2030 data center target, though the credit volume purchased has not been made public.</p><h2>Who Is Climeworks — and What Are the Challenges It Faces?</h2><p>Climeworks was founded in 2009 by Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher and operates the world's first two commercial direct air capture (DAC) plants — Orca, opened in 2021, and Mammoth, which began operations in 2024, both located in Iceland and powered by geothermal energy. The company has raised more than $1 billion in total equity funding, including a $162 million round closed in July 2025, with main investors including BigPoint Holding and Partners Group.</p><p>Despite its pioneering status, Climeworks is navigating serious headwinds. In May 2025, the company cut 22% of its global workforce — 106 positions in total, with 78 of those cuts in Switzerland. The layoffs were attributed to macroeconomic uncertainty, shifting policy priorities in the United States, and uncertainty over U.S. government funding for its planned Louisiana plant.</p><p>The delivery gap between contracted and actual carbon removal is also stark. As of mid-2025, Climeworks had secured orders to capture 380,000 tonnes of CO2 but had delivered only 1,100 tonnes. Orca, its pilot plant with an annual nameplate capacity to trap 4,000 tonnes of CO2, has never captured more than 1,000 tonnes in any year since its completion in 2021.</p><p>On costs, Climeworks CEO Christoph Gebald has stated that the company has managed to halve the cost of removing a tonne of CO2 to $500 using its next-generation technology, which doubles CO2 capture per machine while halving energy consumption. The International Energy Agency estimates that DAC costs today range from about $600 to over $1,000 per tonne, with potential future costs of $100–$300 per tonne — a gap that remains a critical barrier to large-scale deployment.</p><h2>AI Is Rewriting the Data Center Emissions Equation</h2><p>The timing of this deal is inseparable from the broader AI energy crisis. According to the International Energy Agency, global data center electricity use reached approximately 415 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2024 and could rise to more than 1,000 TWh by 2026 — largely driven by AI workloads. Data center electricity consumption has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 12% since 2017, a rate more than four times faster than total global electricity consumption growth.</p><p>The emissions implications are substantial. A peer-reviewed study published in ScienceDirect in December 2025 estimated that the carbon footprint of AI systems alone could be between 32.6 and 79.7 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2025 — a range equivalent to the carbon footprint of New York City. Data centers, by Climeworks' own published analysis, consume up to 50 times the energy per floor space compared to a typical commercial building, and analysts forecast a 160% increase in power demand from data centers by 2030, rising to 8% of total U.S. power compared to 3% in 2022.</p><p>For operators like NTT Data — simultaneously expanding capacity at scale while holding to ambitious net-zero targets — this creates a structural tension that conventional renewable energy procurement alone may not resolve. Carbon removal credits represent one lever operators are increasingly exploring.</p><h2>A Market That Remains Highly Concentrated — and Fragile</h2><p>The broader carbon removal credit market remains dominated by a single buyer. According to Climeworks' own published analysis, Microsoft alone accounts for more than 70% of total carbon removal credits purchased globally to date, with the top five corporate buyers accounting for more than 80% of total removals. The concentration risk this creates for the sector — and for Climeworks specifically — is significant.</p><p>The global market for carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies was valued at $3.4 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $9.6 billion by end of 2029, at a compound annual growth rate of 23.1%. Whether that trajectory holds depends heavily on policy stability, technological progress, and whether more large corporate buyers — like NTT Data — enter the market at meaningful scale.</p><p>Climeworks has noted a customer base shift as well. As Gebald observed in an interview with Sifted: <strong>"We have seen a shift in the customer base we are selling to, from tech companies and towards hard-to-abate sectors."</strong> The NTT Data deal suggests the tech sector is not entirely stepping back, but the dynamics of who is buying — and how much — remain in flux.</p><h2>Expert Reactions</h2><p>Climeworks co-founders and co-CEOs Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher addressed the company's strategic position directly when announcing the May 2025 workforce reductions: <em>"In light of current macroeconomic uncertainty, shifting policy priorities where climate tech is seeing reduced momentum in some areas, and the pending clarity for our next plant in the US, we are planning to reduce the size of our team."</em></p><p>Despite those setbacks, Gebald has maintained a long-view position on the technology's role: <em>"Direct Air Capture has gone from experiment to essential — and we're focused on scaling it by driving down costs and pushing innovation."</em></p><p>On the systemic stakes, Gebald has been direct: <em>"The slower countries collectively go on emissions reductions, the more removals we will need in a world that is increasingly likely to overshoot targets."</em></p><p>Concern about the sector's vulnerability has been echoed by external voices. Eli Mitchell-Larson, co-founder of carbon-removal advocacy group Carbon Gap, put it plainly: <em>"Carbon removal as an industry is fragile."</em></p><p>Jessie Stolark, executive director of the Carbon Capture Coalition, has warned against policy retreat: <em>"Pulling back on any of these federal programs at this juncture would be catastrophic to the broader deployment of these technologies in the next decade."</em></p><h2>What Comes Next</h2><p>The NTT Data–Climeworks deal adds a significant corporate name to the carbon removal buyer list at a moment when the sector needs exactly that kind of diversification. Whether the undisclosed credit volume is large enough to materially shift market concentration away from a Microsoft-dominated landscape remains an open question — one that the terms of the deal, kept private, don't yet answer.</p><p>For NTT Data, the clock is ticking on its 2030 data center net-zero target, even as its capacity pipeline grows toward a gigawatt. For Climeworks, signing new offtake agreements while managing the gap between contracted and delivered removals — and rebuilding after significant layoffs — represents the central operational challenge of the next several years.</p><p>The carbon removal sector is watching whether the AI energy boom translates into a meaningful wave of new buyers, or whether demand remains narrowly concentrated. The NTT Data deal is a data point in that question, not yet an answer.</p><p>For more tech news, visit our <a href='/news'>news section</a>.</p>", "excerpt": "NTT Data Group has agreed to buy carbon removal credits from Climeworks, the Swiss direct air capture pioneer, as AI-driven energy demand intensifies pressure on data center operators to address their emissions footprint. The deal, exclusively shared with Axios on April 30, 2026, comes as the carbon removal market remains heavily concentrated and Climeworks continues to navigate significant scaling challenges. The credit volume involved was not disclosed.", "keywords": ["NTT Data carbon removal", "Climeworks carbon credits", "AI data center emissions", "direct air capture", "carbon capture data centers"], "slug": "ntt-data-climeworks-carbon-removal-deal-ai-data-centers" } ```