AI Takes the Controls: Gigaton Raises $26m To Optimise Heavy Manufacturing

From Climate Solutions News by RESET Media

June 3, 2026 · 27 min · Episode 24

About this episode

The episode discusses how Gigaton uses AI to optimize heavy manufacturing processes and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Heavy industry produces the materials that the modern world runs on. It also produces around a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. Cement alone accounts for roughly 8% of global CO₂, a share that has barely moved in decades. Most of the plants responsible are old, complex, and still running on control systems that were never built for the world they operate in today. This week, Dominic Shales speaks with Buffy Price, co-founder of Gigaton , the AI company replacing control software in energy-intensive industries. Formerly known as Carbon Re and spun out of the University of Cambridge and UCL, Gigaton has just announced a $26 million Series A led by Plural, taking total funding past $35 million. Buffy explains how Gigaton's self-learning platform takes autonomous control of industrial processes, delivering up to $3 million in annual operational savings per plant for customers including Adani Cement, Heidelberg Materials, and Holcim. She talks through the journey from recommendation dashboards to direct plant control, the rise of dark factories in China, and the company's plans to expand from cement into steel, glass, and petrochemicals. They also discuss what it takes to…

People in this episode

Host: Dominic Shales

Guest: Buffy Price

Topics covered

AI
heavy manufacturing
greenhouse gas emissions
industrial processes
climate investment
carbon capture

Keywords

AI
heavy industry
greenhouse gas emissions
Gigaton
Series A funding
industrial savings
carbon capture

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Gigaton, Carbon Re, University of Cambridge, UCL, Plural, Adani Cement, Heidelberg Materials, Holcim