WEBVTT

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(gentle music)

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- So Mike, you joined
Gates Ventures in 2016

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and helped establish Breakthrough Energy.

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What is Breakthrough
Energy and what is unique

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about their approach to
tackling climate change?

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- Sure, Bill Gates, my boss,
started Breakthrough Energy

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in 2015 around the time
of the Paris climate talks

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really as a way to inject the notion

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of innovation and the need for innovation

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in the climate conversation
in a much bigger way.

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Breakthrough started with a
venture fund back in the day,

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which has now grown to more
than a few billion dollars

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and investing in more than a
hundred portfolio companies.

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But it also has a few other platforms

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that have stood up over
time to really think

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about the end-to-end innovation cycle,

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from the very earliest
sort of discovery science

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and early research side of
things through the development

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and demonstration of
some of that technology

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in the venture context or as
you're doing company building.

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And then the Catalyst program
is our attempt to say:

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Great, we've got lots
of those innovations.

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We've got companies out there,
some within Breakthrough,

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many not, who are making
really good progress,

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but they need to build their
first hydrogen facility.

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They need to build their first
large-scale demonstration

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sustainable aviation fuel facility.

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And that is not a place
that traditional capital

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is flocking.

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Part of what we're trying to do is

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to incent people to be
first movers in this

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and to really come out with
some level of creativity

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and some level of boldness to
be able to say,

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"I know this might cost
me a little bit more

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in the short term.

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I know there's risk associated with this

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but it's worth doing."

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- Can you tell me a little
more about that distinction

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between the Ventures operating
as a for-profit entity

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and Catalyst operating as a
non-profit philanthropic entity

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and how that is helping accelerate

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these climate technologies?

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- Well, when you think
about that innovation arc

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that I was talking about

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from early discovery through
to deployment and scale,

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the reality is you need all flavors

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of money to be able to do that.

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And so actually across that
platform, there's a great mix.

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Our Fellows program right now

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is 100% philanthropic as well.

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We're putting super patient,
non-expectant return capital

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into those Fellows and
their projects to see

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if we can accelerate them
to a commercial place.

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The Ventures side of things
is purely private capital,

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putting equity dollars into
startups and companies.

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There's more than a hundred of
those that we've invested in

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really across all of the
highest emitting sectors.

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And then on the Catalyst
side, what we tried to do

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is actually bring a blend.

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What we have is a Breakthrough
Energy Catalyst Foundation

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where those philanthropic
dollars sit and then we have

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a private fund where the
private capital sits.

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Depending on the needs

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of the project and the project developer,

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we'll bring that different
flavor of money to it.

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And so we decided to focus initially

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on four main technology
areas: green hydrogen,

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direct air carbon capture,
long-duration energy storage,

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and sustainable aviation fuel.

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We've since expanded that to a fifth area

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around industrial uses, so
steel, cement, plastics.

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And our hope is that we're
really trying to break the kind

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of chicken-and-egg problem
that exists where, you know,

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there's technologies that are available,

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but they're still too expensive

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and so they never quite lift off.

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But the blend of both private capital

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and philanthropic capital,

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with the other dollars that are available,

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is starting to accelerate those

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more than they otherwise would.

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- Which climate technologies
do you think would drive

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the biggest climate impact
towards a low-carbon economy?

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- The truth is we need all of them, right?

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I mean, we really are hoping to be a voice

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in this climate conversation
that is super inclusive

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about the solutions
that we need out there.

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We think about things
like from the power side

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of advanced geothermal or
advanced nuclear fission

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and fusion.

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We think about things like hydrogen,

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all of the many applications for hydrogen.

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We think about removal of
carbon from the atmosphere

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and direct air capture and other tools.

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But there are a whole host of
those technologies with lots

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of people trying to tackle
that from different angles.

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And we're making bets on lots of those

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because the truth is there isn't
one great silver bullet for this.

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We really feel like we need to be sort

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of looking under every
rock at the possibilities.

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- At BCG, we get our clients
asking us all the time

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how does Breakthrough Energy do it?

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What would you have to
tell them in terms of

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how they can approach the problem

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and be part of the solution?

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- One of the things we really
try to get people focused on

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is to remain optimistic, right?

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It is not easy, as you said,
and it's also not impossible.

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We approach this by thinking about:

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How do we increase the
supply of innovation?

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In a world that is trying to
tackle climate and clean energy

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from a whole bunch of angles,

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how do we maximize the opportunities

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and shots on goal?

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And so there's lots of
opportunity for others outside

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of Breakthrough to do the
same and to join us on that.

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- Breakthrough Energy and
BCG have been partnering

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for the last couple of years.

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I'm curious to hear from your perspective,

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how has BCG's collaboration
helped Breakthrough

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on its mission?

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- BCG has been a
phenomenal partner for us.

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The level of expertise and the depth

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and the kind of nuanced understanding

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of what is it that these
companies need, right?

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What is it across these
geographies that is different

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and bespoke that we need to
be sure we're navigating?

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What are the economic

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and financial geopolitical considerations

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that we need to be mindful
of? Just given the range

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of folks you have around the table at BCG,

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that expertise has, I think,

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made particularly our Catalyst program

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but across the Breakthrough
Energy platform,

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a deeper level of understanding
that makes us smarter

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about how to navigate
some of these industries.

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(calm music)