After spending millions of dollars Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy suspends new investment, lays off staff; follows Gates 'doomsday view of climate change' memo

Bill Gates-backed Breakthrough Energy has reportedly stopped making new investments from one of its key funds to scale up nascent green technologies. According to a report in Bloomberg, the suspension comes as the market for these startups is being squeezed by President Donald Trump’s assaults on climate policy.

After supporting 10 startups and spending “high hundreds of millions of dollars,” a Breakthrough Energy spokesperson told Bloomberg that it has now suspended new investment from the fund. “Catalyst has transitioned from evaluating new funding opportunities to managing and supporting its existing companies,” said the spokesperson, as per a report in Axios, which first reported the Fund's change of direction.

“It is too early to say what the future of our deployment work will look like.” There was no immediate plan to raise more money for the Catalyst fund, according to the spokesperson, who declined to elaborate on what will be done with the remaining capital.

Launched in 2021, Breakthrough’s Catalyst fund is said to have raised more than $1 billion to finance the demonstration and scale-up of first-of-their-kind green solutions.

It is among a series of green initiatives that Gates has established in recent years under the Breakthrough Energy banner.Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a venture-capital firm, has also funded roughly 150 climate-focused startups, of which about 30 or 40 have failed, Gates said in an interview in October 2025. In pursuit of solutions to decarbonize the world, “there’ll be lots of dead ends,” he added. The rethinking of the Catalyst fund investment strategy comes after Gates was criticized by some climate advocates when he said in October that prioritizing the climate fight above all else risks overshadowing issues such as health and equality.

Breakthrough Energy Catalyst lays off employees

As part of the ongoing reform, Breakthrough Energy Catalyst has also reportedly laid off some employees, including its former top exec Mario Fernandez. On layoffs, spokesperson reportedly said that the “evolution of the work requires a smaller team.”

When Bill Gates called out ‘Doomsday’ view of Climate Change

In a memo in October 2025, Bill Gates wrote that it is time to adopt a more measured tone when addressing climate change and the threat it poses to the world. He called out what he characterized as a “doomsday view of climate change.”

“We need to keep backing the breakthroughs that will help the world reach zero emissions. But we can’t cut funding for health and development — programs that help people stay resilient in the face of climate change — to do it,” he said in the memo.Gates added that it is now “time to put human welfare at the center of our climate strategies, which includes reducing the green premium to zero and improving agriculture and health in poor countries.” “This is a chance to refocus on the metric that should count even more than emissions and temperature change: improving lives,” Gates wrote. “COP30 is taking place at a time when it’s especially important to get the most value out of every dollar spent on helping the poorest.

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