Chevron Corporation
Chevron Corporation is the American oil and gas major, founded in 1879, that invests in water-related technology mainly through its corporate venture capital (CVC) arm, Chevron Technology Ventures. It backs companies that pull battery-grade lithium out of salty brine and manage produced water. As of 2026 it has backed 2 water companies across 2 deals.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Chevron Corporation is one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, and water runs through its core business whether it wants it or not: every barrel of oil it pumps brings up barrels of salty 'produced water' that has to be handled. So when Chevron invests in water, it does so as an operator who lives with the problem at industrial scale, not as a sustainability gesture. Its venture money is strategic capital, aimed at technology Chevron itself could deploy.
As of 2025, Chevron pushed that logic into a new business: it entered the U.S. lithium sector, picking up roughly 125,000 acres of lithium-rich brine rights in the Smackover Formation across Arkansas and East Texas. The plan is direct lithium extraction (DLE), pulling battery-grade lithium straight out of underground brine and reinjecting the water. For Chevron, lithium-from-brine is a water-treatment problem it already understands, which is why the same thinking shows up in what it backs.
Chevron Corporation makes most of its technology bets through Chevron Technology Ventures (CTV), its venture arm since 1999, which runs a series of Future Energy Funds (the third, a $500 million pool, opened in 2024). In the water companies (don't) Waste Water tracks, the pattern is brine: ElectraLith, a Melbourne startup whose process extracts lithium with no water and no chemicals, and Mangrove Lithium (formerly Mangrove Water Technologies), a Vancouver firm that refines lithium electrochemically. The thread is turning salty, contaminated water into a critical material, not consumer taps or utilities.
Chevron is, to my eye, one of the clearest examples I track of an oil major treating water as an industrial input rather than an ESG line item. A company this size does not chase small water deals for the optics; it does it because brine handling, produced-water reuse, and lithium recovery are becoming part of how energy gets made. The signal to watch is which brine and water technologies a buyer this large decides to back next, because Chevron's early cheques often map to where heavy industry is heading.
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.
How they invest
Portfolio · 2 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Chevron invest in?
- Chevron Corporation invests across energy technology, and in water it backs companies that turn salty brine and produced water into value. (don't) Waste Water tracks 2 such companies, both focused on extracting battery-grade lithium from brine: ElectraLith and Mangrove Lithium.
- Is Chevron Technology Ventures part of Chevron?
- Yes. Chevron Technology Ventures (CTV) is the in-house corporate venture capital arm of Chevron Corporation, founded in 1999 and based in Houston. It invests Chevron's capital into emerging energy technology, including water and lithium-from-brine, through its Future Energy Funds.
- Who runs Chevron's venture investing?
- Chevron's venture investing runs through Chevron Technology Ventures, led by Jim Gable, its president and Chevron's vice president of innovation, a 25-year company veteran. Chevron Corporation itself is chaired and led by chief executive Mike Wirth, from its Houston headquarters.
- Does Chevron invest in lithium and water?
- Yes. Chevron backs lithium-from-brine and produced-water technology, and in 2025 it entered U.S. lithium directly, acquiring about 125,000 acres of lithium-rich brine rights in the Smackover Formation across Arkansas and East Texas for direct lithium extraction (DLE).
- How many water deals has Chevron done?
- Chevron Corporation has backed 2 water companies across 2 deals, according to (don't) Waste Water's data, both at the brine-to-lithium edge of water technology. It led one of the two rounds, investing chiefly through its venture arm, Chevron Technology Ventures.