Ex-Meta CTO lands $250M for climate tech as VC chases AI

Gigascale Capital, the venture firm spearheaded by former Meta chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer, has secured a $250 million fund dedicated to backing startups focused on energy, grid infrastructure, and critical minerals. The new investment vehicle, unveiled on Monday, marks Gigascale’s second fund and its first to draw support from institutional investors. This capital raise comes at a time when much of the venture capital world has shifted its attention squarely toward artificial intelligence.

Schroepfer, who served as Meta’s CTO for nearly a decade before stepping down in 2022, launched Gigascale with a clear mission: target the hard-tech challenges of the climate transition. The firm’s latest fund will deploy capital into early-stage companies developing solutions for the power grid, energy storage, and mineral supply chains , areas that are increasingly critical as AI’s massive energy demands strain existing infrastructure.

The $250 million fund underscores a growing conviction among investors that climate tech and infrastructure innovation represent a massive opportunity, even as AI dominates headlines and deal flow. By attracting institutional backers for the first time, Gigascale signals that its thesis is gaining mainstream credibility. The firm plans to write checks of $1 million to $5 million per startup, with a focus on technologies that can scale rapidly to meet real-world energy and resource needs.

For Schroepfer, the pivot from social media’s software stack to the physical world’s energy backbone is a natural progression. The fund’s emphasis on grid modernization and critical minerals reflects a recognition that the climate crisis demands not just software but tangible, infrastructure-level solutions. As AI’s electricity consumption continues to rise, the intersection of climate tech and venture capital may prove to be one of the decade’s defining investment themes.