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 right of the scatter at 269 pure-play companies and 5,555 employees, with direct air capture (DAC) a distant second at 100 companies and 2,597 employees, and no other pathway above 40 companies. The six pathways between 27 and 40 companies run from 524 employees (Biomass Burial, 27 companies) up to 1,918 (Afforestation, 40 companies), and five of them stay under 1,000 heads - Mineralization at 661, Enhanced Weathering at 663, Ocean CDR at 614, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) at 914, and Biomass Burial. Afforestation is the dot that breaks the shape: 40 companies carrying 1,918 employees works out to about 48 per firm, against roughly 21 per firm at biochar and 26 at DAC. So the largest-headcount pathway is also the most fragmented, while afforestation is the one pathway that looks like a small cluster of mid-sized operators, which means a biochar hiring slowdown would be spread across hundreds of tiny shops but an afforestation shock would land on a few dozen bigger payrolls.

Chart refreshed from our CDR Company Directory. We publish a data-viz read like this twice a week.