Rice Investment Group
Rice Investment Group is the Carnegie, Pennsylvania family office of the Rice family, the shale-gas operators behind Rice Energy, investing across energy and the energy transition. Its single water-relevant holding is AirJoule Technologies, a company that pulls clean drinking water from air. As of 2026 it has backed 1 water company across 2 deals.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Rice Investment Group is not a water fund, and it has never claimed to be one. It is the private investment vehicle of the Rice family, the Appalachian wildcatters who built Rice Energy into one of the largest natural-gas producers in the United States before selling it to EQT in 2017 in a roughly 10-billion-dollar merger. The fund that followed backs energy and energy-transition companies, and water shows up only where it touches energy.
Rice Investment Group's one foothold in water is AirJoule Technologies, formerly Montana Technologies, a company building machines that harvest drinking water straight out of the air. AirJoule uses metal-organic-framework sorbents, sponge-like materials that grab moisture and then release it with low-grade waste heat, so a single box can both cool a building and produce distilled water. Rice backed it alongside Carrier Global and GE Vernova, who together turned the technology into a manufacturing joint venture.
Rice Investment Group's water logic is really an energy logic. AirJoule's whole pitch is that pulling water from air has always been an energy problem, and its sorbents cut the power that dehumidification and air conditioning normally burn. That fits a fund run by operators who think in molecules and megawatts rather than a water-treatment thesis, which is why (don't) Waste Water scores its water commitment only Occasional.
Rice Investment Group stays busy in its core lane. As of October 2025 it priced a third blank-check company, Rice Acquisition Corporation 3 (NYSE: KRSP), a 300-million-dollar listing raised with the commodities house Mercuria to hunt oil and gas, power and critical-minerals targets. None of that is water, which is the honest read: Rice is a serious energy investor whose water exposure begins and ends, for now, with one bet on water from air.
Water Commitment Score
Compiled from official filings, third-party records, and direct intelligence from investors and founders, in Leviathan · recomputed monthly · as of Jun 2026.
Portfolio · 1 water companies
Frequently asked
- What does Rice Investment Group invest in?
- Rice Investment Group invests across the energy sector and the energy transition, including upstream oil and gas, power generation, energy infrastructure and critical minerals. Its only water-relevant holding is AirJoule Technologies, an atmospheric water-harvesting and cooling company, so water is a small slice of a broadly energy-focused portfolio.
- Who runs Rice Investment Group?
- Rice Investment Group is run by the Rice family and former Rice Energy executives, including partners Daniel Rice, Kyle Derham, Derek Rice, Charles Burrus and Ryan Rice. The team built and sold Rice Energy to EQT in 2017, and now invests its own capital across energy.
- Is Rice Investment Group a water investor?
- Rice Investment Group is primarily an energy and energy-transition investor, not a water fund. (don't) Waste Water rates its water commitment Occasional, reflecting a single water-relevant bet, AirJoule Technologies, which pulls drinking water from air. It has backed 1 water company across 2 deals since 2018.
- Where is Rice Investment Group based?
- Rice Investment Group is based in Carnegie, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, the home turf of the Rice family's Appalachian natural-gas business. The fund was founded in 2018, after the family sold Rice Energy to EQT, and manages roughly 200 million dollars across energy investments.
- What is AirJoule Technologies?
- AirJoule Technologies, formerly Montana Technologies, is the one water-related company Rice Investment Group has backed. It harvests clean drinking water from air using metal-organic-framework sorbents that also cut cooling energy, developed in a joint venture with GE Vernova and in partnership with Carrier Global.