Brin-Backed Startup Leverages Data Centers to Capture Carbon

Google’s co-founder and Alphabet Inc.'s moonshot lab X are making a bet on a technology that has struggled to break through: carbon removal.

Sergey Brin and San Francisco 49ers co-owner Gideon Yu are among the backers of 280 Earth, an under-the-radar startup that uses industrial waste heat to power machines that suck carbon out of the air. The company received $15 million from Catalyst4, a half-billion-dollar nonprofit that Brin recently launched, largely using proceeds from the sale of Tesla shares.

Tech companies, including Alphabet, and major investors like Bill Gates and now Brin — the tenth-richest person in the world ...