Hi, I'm Dan Pramak and welcome to Axios Recap, presented by Bridgebank.

Today is Thursday, September 17th.

Coronavirus cases are up in 17 states.

Snowflake stock is down, at least a little bit, and we're focused on Amazon's $2 billion

effort to go carbon neutral.

Earlier today, Amazon announced the first recipients of money from the $2 billion

venture capital fund it formed in June to help combat climate change.

Among them was a startup that's trying to sequester carbon dioxide in concrete, one that

provides forest carbon offsets, and another

that's trying to recycle batteries and electronic waste.

What Amazon is doing, though, this isn't charity.

For starters, it hopes that these investments will generate strong returns.

Again, it's a venture capital fund.

Second, it wants these companies to develop technologies that will help Amazon meet

its own stated goal of net zero emissions by 2040, which is no small feat when you consider

how much carbon Amazon expels, not just from its package delivery vehicles, but also from

its massive AWS cloud server farms. And just in case the

general public isn't aware of its intentions, Amazon recently paid an undisclosed amount to rename

Seattle's key arena, climate pledge arena. And that's where the NHL's new Seattle Cracken

hockey team is expected to begin play next year.

In 15 seconds, we'll dig in deeper on what Amazon is doing, including how much is sincere

and how much is spin, with Matt Peterson, Amazon's director of new initiatives and corporate

...