In this article, we take a look at the 10 most important companies in the world. If you want to check out our detailed analysis of the existential problems the world faces, go directly to the 20 Most Important Companies in the World.
10. DeepMind
DeepMind is an AI subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG). It has disrupted the field of molecular biology through its AlphaFold AI model, which has solved 98.5% of human proteins’ structures, a problem that puzzled molecular and microbiologists for over half a century.
AlphaTensor, on the other hand, is designed to find novel methods for matrix multiplications, and is expected to speed up computers through discovery of new algorithms, especially as Moore’s law is expected to hit its limits in the next couple of years. DeepMind has major investors like Horizon Ventures and Founders Fund. One of the company’s models named ‘Gato’ has also been described as a proto-AGI, making DeepMind one of the most important AI companies in the world in terms of AGI research.
9. Aleph Farms
According to data by FAO, 14.5% of global greenhouse emissions are resulting from the livestock farming industry. The 1.5 billion cattle raised yearly for meat consumption have a lower-bound methane emission of 231 billion pounds each year, with methane being 31 times more powerful, on average, than CO2 in raising global temperatures over a 100-year period.
Aleph Farms, in this respect, is one of the most important companies in the world. It is an Israeli agritech company, which, in 2018, unveiled its prototype steak made of cow cells.
In 2021, it unveiled the first stem-cells based ribeye steak, made using 3d bioprinting. Per the CEO, Aleph Farms expects price parity with premium beef by 2028. The company has so far raised $119.4 million, with investors like Strauss Group.
8. Aker Carbon Capture
Even if carbon emissions were supposedly stopped completely, the global temperatures would keep on rising due to the carbon already emitted, and could still potentially trigger tipping points. This problem is mitigated by forests, which act as natural carbon sinks, but half of the global forest cover is gone due to human activity.
In this respect, the Norway-based Aker Carbon Capture is one of the most important companies in the world. It uses its proprietary carbon capture technology to capture carbon dioxide from waste flue gasses from different industries like cement plants and oil refineries. Its Brevik cement plant has a carbon-capture capacity of 0.4 million tons per annum.
In January, 2023, the company announced the signing of a letter of intent for the delivery of two of its ‘Just Catch’ solutions to an undisclosed European customer, with the individual carbon capture capacity of 0.1 million tons per annum.
7. Carbon Engineering
Carbon Engineering is a Canadian company working on commercializing direct-air-capture methods for capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It is targeting a carbon-capture capacity of 1 million tons per year.
The captured CO2 can be converted into carbon-neutral sources of energy in a process which the company refers to as Air to Fuels. The energy used in the company’s proprietary technology is also emissions-free. Among Carbon Engineering’s top investors include Chevron Technology Ventures of Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), Starlight Ventures and Bill Gates.
6. Bayer
Bayer is a German biotechnology corporation and one of the most important companies in the world when it comes to solving the approaching agricultural crisis.
In this respect, a number of ‘biologics’ solutions it is working on include microbial products, RNAi technologies and GMOs to improve crop health and yield. Its shareholders include The Vanguard Group, Harris Associates LP, Dodge & Cox and Norges Bank Investment Management, among prominent others.
5. The Ocean Cleanup
The Ocean Cleanup is a non-profit company with the objective of ridding oceans of 90% of the floating plastic, which is a huge undertaking. To this end, The Ocean Cleanup develops artificial coastlines to concentrate ocean plastic at scale.
The artificial coastline systems comprise U-shaped barriers that guide plastic into retention zones at their far ends. The Ocean Cleanup uses artificial intelligence and computer modeling to predict plastic waste hot spots and places its coastlines there.
The company expects to clean up 90% of the floating ocean plastic by 2040. It is the biggest player in its domain, and has a total funding of $35.4 million to date, with the latest grant in 2020 amounting to $1 million.
4. N-Drip
N-Drip is an Israeli agritech startup and one of the most promising companies when it comes to solving water crises and improving crop yield. The traditional flood irrigation approach wastes 70% water, significantly lowers crop yield and causes land degradation.
The N-Drip micro-irrigation approach, on the other hand, reduces water use by 70%, while simultaneously improving crop yield by 33%. N-Drip solution’s other benefits include 100% recyclability, elimination of runoff and topsoil erosion, 70% reduction in energy usage, and up to 75% savings in conversion costs.
The company has so far raised a total of $37.4 million, with Granot, RDC and Bridges Israel being its prominent investors.
3. First Light Fusion
First Light Fusion is a British fusion technology company focused on commercializing fusion energy in a simpler, cost-efficient way, in an inertial fusion approach dubbed as projectile fusion, in which the fuel is compressed by a fast-traveling projectile.
First Light Fusion achieved fusion in April 2022 using its projectile fusion approach, and a performance improvement rate that has been described as faster than any other fusion approach in the past. The results were independently validated by the UK Atomic Energy Authority.
The company has raised $107 million so far, with top investors being Braavos Capital, Tencent and Oxford Science Enterprises.
2. TAE Technologies
TAE Technologies is a US company which has been developing fusion energy technology and expects its fusion reactors to be operating commercially by 2030. TAE has demonstrated the production of stable plasma at temperatures of more than 50 million degrees in hundreds of test cycles.
The company raised $250 million in a Series G round in the summer of 2022, bringing its total funding to $1.2 billion. Among its prominent investors are Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX).
Out of the 33 fusion energy companies, TAE is among the most promising to usher the world into an age of abundant clean energy at the commercial scale.
1. Helion Energy
Helion Energy is one of the most important US-based fusion energy companies in the world. It is building the world’s first fusion-based generators and the company intends to demonstrate net gain in electricity through fusion in 2024.
It is the first fusion energy company with the capability to heat plasma to 100 million degrees. Helion raised $500 million in a Series E round in late 2021, from prominent firms like Mithril Capital and Capricorn Investment Group.
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