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Industries need to fight for industrial decarbonization

Andrew Byrnes | February 2023

企业风险基金在加速新的可持续性创新方面发挥着巨大的作用

气候变化是一个紧迫的全球问题,影响着社会和美光的运营地点, water availability, supply chains and markets. As semiconductor manufacturing is energy- and emissions-intensive, 我们制定了积极的目标,以减少我们对气候变化的影响(包括到2030年将我们全球运营的温室气体排放量减少42%,到2050年实现我们运营和购买能源的净零排放)。.

美光正在做大量工作来实现这些目标,并管理与气候变化相关的风险, 包括建造节能和节水的LEED金标准建筑,以及确定低排放的替代制造过程化学物质. We need to continue the search for additional novel solutions.

These cannot always be born inside Micron, but our company can still identify and assist in their development. Promising third-party solutions might need help scaling to become viable, 它们不仅可以减少美光公司对气候的影响,还可以减少整个半导体行业的影响.

In 2021, 美光风险投资公司(Micron Ventures)与半导体生态系统中主要参与者组成的其他企业风险投资(CVC)团队一起,推出了一项导师计划和推介活动 Startups for Semiconductor Sustainability with a goal to scale solutions to market faster. This program has four main objectives:

  1. 将半导体行业的一群cvc聚集在一起,为创业社区创造一个临界质量.
  2. 针对我们行业面临的可持续性挑战,与创业公司共同探讨共同的问题.
  3. 将有吸引力的创业团队和解决方案与行业专家联系起来,以帮助实现沙巴体育结算平台化, go to market, fundraising, customer intros and more.
  4. Drive visibility, 投资和概念验证活动,为新的可持续性技术在半导体业务.

The first round was a prototype — with excellent results! 根据我们的经验和参与的初创公司的反馈,我们做了一些改进, and we’re excited to launch our second round. The application process is now open!

Why industrial decarbonization is ripe for disruption

Insights from the PWC State of Climate Tech Report 2022 show how investment is flowing into sustainability-related activity. 简而言之,可持续性作为一个整体非常热门,在2022年将占到风投活动的25%以上.

From my perspective (that is, 作为一家CVC,希望投资那些能够推动半导体行业脱碳的初创公司), this is the most important data from the report:

  1. 全球85%的排放量获得了全球52%的气候技术风险投资.
  2. Industrial emissions represent 34% of human-caused GHG emissions, 然而,专注于工业脱碳的初创公司只获得了旨在减少温室气体排放的风险投资的9%.

That imbalance is why we created Startups for Semiconductor Sustainability.

工业脱碳——以避免温室气体排放的方式重建人类的工业过程——是一个数万亿美元的转型,将在未来几十年内发生, yet it is by far the most underserved VC category relative to its impact.

对投资者和创新者来说,支持工业脱碳的差距是一个巨大的机会. By focusing on problem statements and productized solutions, we can more quickly discover, fund and scale key pieces to accomplish sustainability targets.

Why CVC is a key partner for industrial decarbonization startups

风投不公平对待工业脱碳是有充分理由的. We can sum it in two words — legacy systems.

Process methods, process tools, abatement systems, 水处理——所有这些东西都已经存在,并被构建到任何工业运营商的运营模式中.

用新方法接近工业客户,使根深蒂固的遗留系统更具可持续性,这对年轻的公司来说是一项艰巨的任务, with very real technology and time-to-market barriers to entry. Success is not impossible, but it does require a couple of things:

  • 提高了工业操作员和主题专家的风险承受能力.
  • 跨组织协调,确保启动项目成功扩展.

Our program is specifically designed to reduce these barriers to entry, 为公司提供跨组织的新技术可见性-从主题专家到采购到执行人员. This process requires much work and coordination, but through the growing interest in sustainability, 我们能够协调各方利益,加快采取必要步骤,扩大有效解决方案的规模.

And it’s not just Micron. Through the program, participating companies — like Intel, Applied Materials, Samsung, Lam Research和其他公司对整个半导体生态系统的挑战也有类似的了解.

Why now is the time for industrial decarbonization

技术创新是全球可持续发展的关键组成部分(让我们现实一点:这是一项要求), 但迄今为止,推动可持续发展的最大因素是政府的监管和激励措施.

That said, government regulation of GHG emissions has proven relatively tricky, and enforcing those regulations is often trickier still.

然而,气候变化是对人类经济和生活的生存威胁. 世界上推动这些经济体的最大的公司和集团现在对气候变化的威胁保持警惕,并明白,如果现在不采取气候行动,经济和社会模式就会受到威胁.

In 2020, Micron announced the first of its sustainability targets, including a 42% GHG reduction by 2030 and net-zero operations by 2050. These targets were not driven by policy; they were driven by executive will and customer demand. Google, Microsoft, Amazon, 苹果以及地球上所有主要的科技公司都在做出积极的气候承诺, both for themselves and their supply chains, with a strong focus on semiconductor manufacturing and use.

我们认为,工业脱碳是未来30年全球最大的市场机遇之一. 而且,我们正处于一个能够显著增加价值的位置,以加速在我们的运营中扩展新的可持续技术.

As investors, 我们渴望发现并投资那些推动工业脱碳的顶级初创公司. If that’s you and your company, we look forward to meeting you!

See Investing in the Future | Micron’s 2022 sustainability report

See Startups for Semiconductor Sustainability | SEMI

Director, Venture Capital - Artificial Intelligence

Andrew Byrnes

Andy is with Micron’s AI fund investing in some of the world’s top startups. He’s a recovering startup founder, writer, and solar/battery materials geek, and when he’s not thinking about technology innovation and startups, he’s probably running or doing something weird with his young’uns. And he’s big on words like “young’uns.”