Amazon's big new $2 billion climate VC fund

• Verizon, Infosys, and consumer goods heavyweight Reckitt Benckiser joined the pledge last week, and Amazon said this morning it will look to involve pledge signatories in the venture effort.

How it works: "Companies from around the world of all sizes and stages will be considered, from pre-product startups to well-established enterprises," Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement.

What's next: Amazon opened the initial application process this morning, setting up a page to accept "indications of interest." But, as the Wall Street Journal notes, Amazon didn't provide a timeline for distributing what it called the "initial" $2 billion.

The big picture: It's part of a growing move by tech giants into funding climate-friendly companies and technologies — even as they remain under fire over their business deals with oil companies.

Flashback: Microsoft, when it rolled out its January pledge to become "carbon negative" by 2030, said it was creating a $1 billion fund to "accelerate the global development of carbon reduction, capture, and removal technologies."