Bill Gates, Microsoft's co-founder and the world's fourth-richest man, is very bullish on innovation in the climate space, and he believes that in the future there will be eight to ten Teslas in this field, and even tech giants like Google, Amazon or Microsoft.
At the climate technology summit held by venture capital firm SOSV on Wednesday local time in the United States, Gates said in an interview that the future return on climate investment will be comparable to that of technology giants. "There will be eight or ten Teslas in this space, and today only one is widely known," he said. ”
Tesla's market capitalization has doubled in the past year, rising more than 2,000% in the last five years. Gates said: "For the winner, anyone who invests in Tesla feels very smart. ”
Gates predicts that more companies will benefit from the climate sector. "You know, there's going to be big companies like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, there's going to be big companies in this space," he said. ”
Gates co-founded Microsoft in 1975, while Amazon and Google were born during the Internet boom of the 1990s. The tech giants are now three of the four most valuable companies in the U.S. Data compiled by Forbes magazine shows that Gates' current net worth is $134.3 billion.
Gates invests in cleantech through its company, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, which is also an investor in Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world's largest hedge fund.
While Gates is very bullish on the outlook for the climate sector, he said that as in the dot-com bubble, a lot of money will be washed away. He added that today's situation is "like the early days of software and computers."
Gates said most of the current technology is "lab-level" and investors need to be cautious when assessing the economic viability of these ideas.
In addition, many projects require significant investment before they can prove effective. Gates said technologies such as nuclear fusion, nuclear fission and energy storage require "hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars in investment." Even so, you're still not sure if these technologies will be successful or even contributing.
In addition to the huge amount of capital needed, Gates said, innovation in the climate sector requires governments to develop "incentive policies" to promote the adoption of zero-emission technologies. He suggested that investors who want to put money into less risky areas "can participate in financing the solar space.".
Gates acknowledges that direct air carbon capture, hydrogen, steel and aviation fuel are more difficult markets to predict. "We're going to have a high failure rate," he said. But there are enough ideas to say that "we have the potential to achieve substantial success," especially with the right government assistance.
Gates added: "Some people can't afford to take risks, or if you're looking for short-term returns, I suggest you look elsewhere." ”