Currently, it costs about $600 to $1,000 to capture a metric ton of carbon, which is far more than anyone thinks is commercially viable. So myriad startups are racing to cut costs, aiming to capture one metric ton of carbon dioxide for $100 or less.
Even at that price, it could be a difficult sell since burning fossil fuels remains, for the most part, free. But many investors and even a few multinational corporations like Microsoft, Shopify, and Stripe are betting that eventually, the world will embrace direct air capture, much like how we treat wastewater today instead of dumping it into a river.