NTT Data and Climeworks Signal AI's DAC Turning Point

The AI infrastructure sector just made its first major commitment to direct air capture at scale. NTT DATA Group, the world's third-largest data center provider, has signed a partnership agreement with Climeworks, the Swiss DAC pioneer. The deal gives NTT DATA access to hundreds of kilotonnes of carbon removal over the next decade and marks Climeworks' first portfolio agreement with a major AI infrastructure and data center company.

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Why Is AI Infrastructure Turning to Direct Air Capture?

Data centers are among the fastest-growing electricity consumers on the planet. Global data center electricity demand grew 17% in 2025, according to the International Energy Agency. AI-focused facilities grew even faster, surging 50% in the same year. Total consumption is projected to nearly double, from 485 TWh in 2025 to 950 TWh by 2030, reaching roughly 3% of global electricity demand.

That growth puts companies like NTT DATA under mounting pressure to find credible solutions for emissions that renewables and efficiency cannot fully address. Nature-based offsets have faced growing scrutiny over permanence and verifiability. DAC credits permanently store CO2 underground in geological formations, providing the durable, measurable removal that rigorous net-zero commitments require.

NTT DATA was explicit about the deal's scope. The partnership is a last-mile complement, not a substitute for direct emissions reductions.

NTT DATA already sourced 56% of its global electricity from renewables in fiscal year 2024, up from 49% the prior year. The company targets net zero in Scope 1 and 2 emissions across global data center operations by 2030, in offices worldwide by 2035, and across Scope 3 emissions by 2040.

What Does the NTT DATA and Climeworks Agreement Cover?

The agreement gives NTT DATA a diversified portfolio of carbon dioxide removal credits sourced across Climeworks' global facilities. That portfolio includes both engineered and nature-based removal options, all sourced and quality-vetted through Climeworks' scientific due diligence process. Exact financial terms were not disclosed.

This is Climeworks' first portfolio agreement with a major data center and AI infrastructure firm. In 2022, Climeworks signed a 10-year deal with Microsoft to remove 10,000 tonnes of CO2 over a decade. The NTT DATA arrangement uses a broader, diversified portfolio structure and represents a significantly larger buyer commitment in the AI infrastructure space.

The deal was announced at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development meeting in Geneva on April 30, 2026. It makes NTT DATA the first Japan-based IT and technology services provider to partner with Climeworks to procure high-quality CDR credits.

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How Does This Deal Connect to North America?

NTT DATA operates seven U.S. data center campuses in markets including Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix, Virginia, and Hillsboro, Oregon. In December 2025, the company secured hyperscale agreements totaling more than 130 MW across four U.S. campuses, supporting AI and machine learning workloads for major cloud providers. Its North American expansion is backed by a $10 billion global investment commitment through 2027.

As NTT DATA's U.S. footprint grows, so does the need for credible domestic carbon solutions. Climeworks is building exactly that. The company is the anchor DAC technology provider for Project Cypress, a megaton-scale DAC hub planned for southwest Louisiana. Construction starts in 2026, with the project designed to scale toward one million tonnes of CO2 removal per year by 2030.

The technology heading to Louisiana is Climeworks' Generation 3 DAC system. It doubles CO2 capture capacity per module and cuts energy consumption by 50% compared to earlier designs. Climeworks' 180-person R&D team ran 5,000 CO2 capture cycles and logged 15,000 testing hours to validate it before commercial deployment.

Climeworks is also advancing DOE-selected DAC hub projects in California and North Dakota, further deepening its North American supply base.

Climeworks Plant	Location	Capacity	Status
Orca	Iceland	4,000 tonnes CO2/year	Operational since 2021
Mammoth	Iceland	36,000 tonnes CO2/year	Operational since May 2024
Project Cypress (Gen 3)	Southwest Louisiana, USA	Pathway to 1 million tonnes CO2/year by 2030	Construction starting 2026

What Does This Signal for the Broader CDR Market?

The NTT DATA agreement arrives at a pivotal moment for the carbon removal market. Companies contracted over 61.5 million tonnes of CDR in the first half of 2025 alone, a record high driven largely by Microsoft's large-scale procurement, according to Allied Offsets data cited by Decarbonfuse.

The buyer pool is diversifying beyond that single dominant buyer. Bain and Company made its first DAC purchase in January 2026, securing 9,000 metric tonnes from 1PointFive's STRATOS facility in Texas. JPMorganChase has built a multi-agreement CDR portfolio spanning direct air capture, bio-oil sequestration, and biomass-based removal, totaling well over one million metric tonnes contracted across multiple deals since 2023. Demand for high-quality, verifiable carbon removal is expanding to a wider class of enterprise operators.

That context matters. Microsoft paused all new CDR purchases earlier in 2026, with no stated timeline. The pause raised serious questions about the sector's dependence on one dominant buyer that had accounted for roughly 90% of all global engineered CDR purchases in 2025, according to CDR.fyi. The NTT DATA deal, announced in the same period, is a direct and meaningful counterpoint.

Global data center CO2 emissions from electricity generation are projected to peak at roughly 320 million tonnes around 2030, according to the IEA's Energy and AI report. That is a substantial and growing pool of residual emissions that cannot be solved through renewables and efficiency alone. The durable CDR market delivered its first million metric tonnes in actual removals in 2025. Reaching the next order of magnitude requires more buyers, more projects, and long-term agreements exactly like this one.

NTT DATA U.S. Expansion	Details
U.S. campuses in operation	7 campuses including Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix, Virginia, and Hillsboro, Oregon
Hillsboro, Oregon planned capacity	354 MW total after new land acquisition
Mesa, Arizona new campus	174 acres, 7 planned facilities, approximately 324 MW capacity
December 2025 hyperscale agreements	More than 130 MW across Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix, and Virginia campuses
Global investment commitment	More than $10 billion through 2027 for AI-ready data center infrastructure

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