An Amazon Prime truck in downtown Seattle near Amazon HQ. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)

Amazon announced on Tuesday that it was investing in Infinium, a Sacramento, Calif.-based startup that is developing what it describes as “net-zero carbon fuels” that can be used in transportation.

“Infinium’s electrofuels solution has real potential to help decarbonize transport that carries heavier loads and travels long distances, including air and freight, as well as heavy trucks,” Kara Hurst, Amazon’s vice president of Worldwide Sustainability, said in a statement.

The investment comes from Amazon’s $2 billion Climate Pledge Fund, which the company created in June to support tech innovation that will help the online retail and cloud computing behemoth reach its goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.

Amazon has already announced investments in CarbonCure Technologies, Pachama, Redwood Materials, Rivian, Turntide Technologies and ZeroAvia.

The support for Infinium is part of a larger funding round that includes Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, AP Ventures, Neuman & Esser, and the Grantham Environmental Trust. The startup said it will use the cash infusion to develop commercial scale applications of its fuel. The parties involved did not disclose the size of the round or the amount contributed by Amazon.

Last year Amazon released its first sustainability report, which showed that the company’s 2019 greenhouse gas emissions rose over the previous year by 15%. Throughout 2020 and the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Seattle-based company reported that it broke numerous sales records.

Amazon has been building out its own delivery infrastructure of trucks, cargo planes and more. The company is purchasing 100,000 electric vans from Rivian to bolster its delivery fleet; it is also a major investor in the Irvine, Calif.-based company.

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