Microsoft Kicks Off 2026 With Flurry of Large-Scale Carbon Removal Purchase Deals

Microsoft has opened 2026 with a series of major carbon removal purchases, reinforcing its position as the world’s largest corporate buyer of carbon dioxide removal (CDR). In the first weeks of the year alone, the company has committed to nearly 5 million tonnes of carbon removal through multiple long-term agreements, underscoring both the scale and pace of its net-zero strategy.

The latest announcements follow a framework deal revealed earlier in the week with Rubicon Carbon for 2 million tonnes of afforestation, reforestation, and revegetation (ARR) credits. Together with the newly disclosed transactions, Microsoft’s early-2026 commitments already total almost 3 million additional tonnes of removals.

 

Scaling Soil Carbon Through Regenerative Agriculture

 

The largest of the new agreements is a 12-year deal for 2.85 million tonnes of soil carbon removal credits from Indigo Ag. The credits will be generated through regenerative agriculture practices adopted by U.S. farmers, including cover cropping, diversified crop rotation, reduced tillage, and improved nutrient management.

Indigo Ag, founded in 2013, launched its carbon program in 2019 and combines agronomic support, soil sampling, and on-farm data with third-party verification and registry issuance to generate credits. Microsoft’s latest purchase represents a significant scale-up from its previous two transactions with the company, which totaled 40,000 tonnes and 60,000 tonnes respectively.

From Microsoft’s perspective, the deal reflects confidence in soil carbon as a scalable, nature-based removal pathway, provided it is supported by rigorous measurement, reporting, and verification. For Indigo, the agreement strengthens the commercial case for regenerative agriculture by providing long-term demand and direct financial incentives for farmers.

 

Read more: Grassroots Carbon Becomes First U.S. Company to Deliver 1.9 Million Tons of Carbon Removals Through Regenerative Ranching

 

Expanding Biochar Removal in India

 

Alongside the soil carbon agreement, Microsoft also signed a new offtake deal for more than 100,000 tonnes of carbon removal from a biochar project in India developed by Varaha. Varaha focuses on nature-based carbon removal projects across South Asia, working primarily with smallholder farmers.

The biochar project sources cotton stalks from farms in Maharashtra, converting what is typically waste biomass into biochar through gasification. This approach avoids open-field burning, a major contributor to air pollution, while locking carbon into a stable form that can be applied back to soils. Varaha plans to deploy 18 industrial gasification reactors with a combined projected removal volume exceeding 2 million tonnes of CO₂ over their operational life.

Beyond carbon removal, the project delivers additional environmental and social benefits, including improved soil health, higher water retention, reduced local air pollution, and new income streams for thousands of smallholder farmers.

 

Explore OneStop ESG Marketplace: Carbon offset services

 

Cementing a Lead in Corporate Carbon Removal

 

According to data from CDR.fyi, Microsoft has now purchased more than 34.6 million tonnes of carbon removal credits in total. This places it far ahead of the next-largest buyers, with the Frontier buyers group reporting cumulative purchases of around 1.9 million tonnes.

The scale and diversity of Microsoft’s portfolio, spanning soil carbon, biochar, afforestation, and other removal pathways, reflects a deliberate strategy to support multiple technologies and geographies while helping to mature the global carbon removal market. As corporate demand for high-integrity removals grows, Microsoft’s early and sizeable commitments continue to set the benchmark for voluntary climate action in 2026.