Arca strikes 10-year carbon removal deal with Microsoft

By October 29, 2025
An Arca engineer measures carbon dioxide.
For the second time this year, Microsoft has partnered with a Vancouver carbon capture startup.

Microsoft has once again turned to Canadian tech to achieve its goal of being carbon-negative by 2030.   

Vancouver-based carbon capture startup Arca has struck a 10-year deal with the tech giant to remove nearly 300,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air. Arca’s CO2 capture solution relies on carbon mineralization, a natural process that transforms gaseous carbon into rock. Arca uses microwave radiation to break down certain minerals found in mining byproducts, making them bind with CO2. 

Arca “has proven they can sequester carbon through their demonstration project, giving us confidence to enter into a multi-year agreement.”

Phil Goodman,
Microsoft

“This agreement with Microsoft validates industrial mineralization as a viable pathway for durable carbon removal with the potential to scale and meaningfully contribute to global climate goals,” Arca CEO Paul Needham said in a statement. 

The agreement with Microsoft follows Arca completing its first full-scale mineralization demonstration project at an active mine site this year. Phil Goodman, the director of Microsoft’s Carbon Dioxide Removal Program, said the offtake agreement diversifies the company’s carbon removal portfolio “into a pathway that combines scalability and permanence.”

RELATED: Vancouver-based CO280 strikes 12-year carbon removal deal with Microsoft

“Arca brings notable scientific expertise and has proven they can sequester carbon through their demonstration project, giving us confidence to enter into a multi-year agreement,” Goodman said. 

Arca said Microsoft’s long-term commitment helps as the company looks to expand its pipeline of mineralization projects “from pilots to million-tonne operations.” 

This isn’t the first Vancouver-based carbon capture startup Microsoft has turned to this year. In April, the company struck a 12-year carbon removal deal with CO280 to remove almost 3.7 million tonnes of CO2 emissions from an American paper mill. In a similar move, Microsoft founder Bill Gates’s climate solution-focused funding platform also provided significant grant funding to MontrĂ©al-based carbon-capture startup Deep Sky last December. 

Last year, Arca received $1.25 million in support from NorthX Climate Tech (formerly the BC Centre for Innovation and Clean Energy) to develop its carbon capture solution. The company was also one of three Canadian finalists competing in the Xprize Carbon Removal competition.

Feature image courtesy Arca.

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