At least five carbon capture projects are under consideration across the U.S., all targeting CO2 emissions from natural gas plants that would serve data centers, according to company statements, news coverage and independent reports. The pipeline spans Google's publicly announced project in Illinois, a second Google-linked effort reported in Nebraska, proposals from ExxonMobil and Chevron, and a Meta agreement in Louisiana with Entergy that carries an option to add capture equipment.

The driver is arithmetic, not sentiment. AI demand is lifting electricity consumption, and hyperscalers are meeting it in part with unabated natural gas. "Unabated natural gas is being pursued by all the hyperscalers no matter how stringent their climate goals," said Alex Dewar, managing director at BCG and lead author of a recent report on the topic. Companies are trying to square those goals with rising gas use, he said: "That's where the solution does come back to carbon capture."

BCG's analysis of eight power sources found gas plants paired with carbon capture were the only option scoring consistently well across cost, speed, scalability and emissions. The firm estimates up to $80 billion could be spent on new gas plants and retrofits fitted with capture if the market takes off. A separate report from the Great Plains Institute, released last week, identified the Gulf Coast, West Texas and Oklahoma as prime regions for that buildout.

Talk versus steel

The built reality is thinner than the announcements. No natural gas plant operating in the U.S. currently runs carbon capture equipment, though projects are progressing globally and domestic capture is advancing at other types of facilities. Oil and gas companies led much of the early development; high costs capped deployment.

That gap is visible in the data center sector itself. Cully Cavness, co-founder and president of data center developer Crusoe, has been flagging capture ambitions for roughly two years with little public output. "We have not yet announced a project ... but we're pursuing a bunch of opportunities," Cavness said. "Ultimately, it's an economics question." Federal subsidies help but don't close the gap, he added: "Soon we'll be able to share something."

Google is more direct about the maturity problem. "It's still a technology that has a long way to go before it can be commercialized at scale," said Michael Terrell, head of advanced energy at Google. "And we're committed to helping get it there."

Bloom's wager

KR Sridhar, co-founder and CEO of Bloom Energy, whose fuel cell units generate power from natural gas and are seeing surging demand as a fast route to energize data centers, argues big tech will carry the technology. Big tech companies "will be the leaders in demonstrating carbon capture," Sridhar said, and that leadership will help it proliferate globally. "I strongly believe carbon capture use and storage will be the only way we will decarbonize the planet in a big way over the next two decades," he said. Bloom is in early talks with "many of the hyperscalers" about deploying capture; Sridhar said the company will not discuss it publicly until next year.

Economics and the 2033 deadline

The project math remains difficult. A federal tax credit — currently set to expire in 2033 — is key to making projects viable, and upfront capital costs stay high even with subsidies covering some operating expenses. "The biggest hurdle is the scale of the capital required," Dewar said.

What has changed is who can write the check. Tech majors have largely held their climate pledges even as AI pushes power demand up and political support for climate action weakens. That tension, combined with deep balance sheets, could move capture from pilot stage to procurement.

The structure of the pipeline is shifting too. "There's a lot more in the pipeline than what's publicly known," Dewar said. "We're seeing a shift to smaller-scale projects to demonstrate the technology and scale up from there."

The milestones to watch are concrete: whether Google's Illinois project and the Entergy-Meta option in Louisiana convert into sanctioned builds, whether Crusoe announces the project it says is coming, and whether the 45Q-style federal credit survives long enough past the first final investment decisions to anchor a market that BCG sizes in the tens of billions.