Each dot on this scatter is a single CDR pathway - direct air capture, enhanced rock weathering, biochar, ocean alkalinity, mineralization, and the rest. The horizontal axis counts how many companies are working that pathway; the vertical axis sums the employees across those companies. Linear scales on both, so distance on the page matches distance in the numbers.
What this view reveals that a headcount table cannot is the shape of the industry. A pathway sitting high and to the right is crowded with firms and staffed deeply. One sitting high but to the left is a pathway dominated by a few large companies. Low and to the right means many small teams chasing the same idea. The spread between these corners is the story of where capital and talent have actually landed, versus where the field is still a cottage.
Read it carefully. Employee counts are self-reported and mix full-time scientists with sales staff, and a pathway’s headcount is not a claim about tons delivered, cost, or durability.
What the chart shows today
Biochar sits far out on the x-axis with 377 companies, nearly three times the next pure removal pathway and well ahead of DAC at 125, while Mineralization, Enhanced Weathering, Ocean CDR and Biomass Burial all cluster below 45. The employee dimension tells the sharper story: 569 pure-play suppliers share just 9,527 employees, an average of under 17 people per company. That puts most pathways in the bottom-left corner of the chart - lots of dots, little payroll. The takeaway is that this industry is still fragmented at the seed stage; the pathway that first produces a few 500-person dots in the upper region will look structurally different from everything else on this chart.
Chart refreshed from our CDR Company Directory. We publish a data-viz read like this twice a week.