Breakthrough Energy, a climate-focused initiative founded by Bill Gates, has fired dozens of employees, according to The New York Times.
The organization, as reported by the Times, dismantled staff working in partnership with the US Climate Policy Team, European Team, and other climate groups, citing internal memos and unnamed sources.
“Bill Gates is just as committed as ever to advance the clean energy innovations needed to deal with climate change,” an energy spokesperson told The News York Times. “His work in this field will continue and focus on helping promote reliable and affordable clean energy solutions, allowing people to thrive everywhere.”
A month ago, HeatMap also reported that Breakthrough Energy was beginning to shrink its grantmaking budget, notifying several nonprofits that support would not be updated.
But Breakthrough Energy Venture, a $3.5 billion venture capital arm for breakthroughs investing in a wide range of climate technology companies, has not been affected. The spokesman said the fellowship programme for organizations supporting early-stage climate technology leaders will also continue.
Bloomberg also confirmed that groundbreaking energy laid off dozens of workers across US and European offices amid slowing climate policy advocacy efforts.
“The group fired all staff in Europe and all staff from the US public policy team and staff responsible for the partnership, according to familiar people.”
The layoffs include the entire European staff, the US public policy team, and staff who manage the partnership, according to sources familiar with the issue.
The groundbreaking energy serves as an umbrella organization that houses a variety of initiatives to accelerate the transition of clean energy. These include breakthrough energy ventures, a leading investor in early-stage climate technology with stocks in over 120 companies, a grantmaking program for startup founders, and breakthrough catalytics, a fundraising platform for emerging climate technology. None of these sectors were affected by recent cuts.
This shift from advocacy of climate policy will occur as the Trump administration reduces environmental protection agency staffing, cuts grants for climate projects, and withdraws from the Paris Agreement.
EPA administrator Lee Zeldin recently rolled back environmental regulations related to coal-fired power plants, climate change and electric vehicles. These moves are in line with the administration’s broader efforts to curb inflation by expanding its back-green policy.
The layoffs also coincided with the dismantling of the USAID linked to Elon Musk’s doge. Last month, Gates expressed concern over the situation.
“I’m a bit worried, especially with this USAID thing. My foundation is affiliated with USAID and nutrition and vaccines, and hopefully I’ll get some of the work back.
Bill Gates: “I’m a bit worried, especially with this USAID thing. My foundation is affiliated with USAID with nutrition and vaccines… Hopefully we’ll get back some of that work… If you don’t, you can literally have millions of deaths.” pic.twitter.com/5rycpdcjff
– February 4th, 2025, Chief Otaku (@thechiefnerd)
A groundbreaking energy venture upstream ownership view
Founded in 2015 by Bill Gates, the groundbreaking energy began as a venture fund backed by investors around the world. Over time, it evolved into a broader initiative and expanded to include startup funding aimed at expanding climate policy work, research support and clean energy solutions.
Breakthrough Energy Venture (BEV) operates as an investment sector with a focus on accelerating sustainable energy innovation and tackling climate change.
Gates is the driving force behind BEV, but he has been joined by a group of well-known investors who focus on sustainable energy solutions. Some of these supporters are:
Jeff Bezos (Amazon) Michael Bloomberg (Bloomberg LP) Richard Branson (Virgin Group) Jack Ma (Alibaba) Mukesh Ambani (Reliance Industries) John Door (Venture Capitalist) Vinod Kosra (Koslaventer) Mark Zuckerberg (Meta)
BEV will put money into startups that will act as venture capital funds and develop new technologies in clean energy, agriculture, transportation and other sectors that contribute to carbon emissions. The group initially committed $2 billion to these investments, but that amount has increased over time.
Below is an upstream ownership view of a groundbreaking energy venture
Funding that impacts Gavi will be reduced
Breakthrough energy isn’t just about Gate-backed initiatives facing funding challenges. Vaccine Alliance Gavi also received a large amount of USAID funding in 2024. Founded in 2000 with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Gavi works to improve access to vaccines in low-income countries.
Data on USaspending.gov shows that Gavi is one of the top recipients of the USAID grant and receives a $4 billion US taxpayer fund in 2024 alone.
Bill Gates’ gavi One of the top recipients of the 2024 USAID grant. pic.twitter.com/hzcffxnjt2
– American Association of Doctors and Surgeons (@aapsonline) February 4, 2025
