Alphabet Veterans Raise $400 Million to Rebuild U.S. Infrastructure
Two former Google executives launch Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners with $400 million in funding to modernize recycling, transit, and other critical systems. The new venture aims to solve intractable infrastructure problems using advanced technology.
Two veterans of Google's parent company Alphabet are launching a massive effort to rebuild American infrastructure with the help of a $400 million funding round. Jonathan Winer and Brian Barlow lead Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP), a new holding company spun out of Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs that secures major financial backing from Alphabet and the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan.
SIP focuses on modernizing four key pillars of the country's infrastructure through a technology-driven approach. The company currently targets the growing plastics crisis by investing in a startup called AMP, which uses advanced technology to achieve recycling capabilities that traditional methods cannot match. SIP plans to construct a specialized facility in the Midwest to process cast-off plastic materials at scale.
This ambitious initiative emerges alongside similar calls for infrastructure rebuilding from figures like venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Winer and Barlow explicitly design SIP to navigate the political and public relations challenges that previously hampered Sidewalk Labs as they attempt to transform systems ranging from waste management to the deployment of autonomous vehicles.