Bill Gates invests $US1b in clean energy

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, along with a string of high-profile executives are investing more than $1 billion ($A1.3 billion) in a clean energy fund.

The fund, Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), will finance emerging energy research to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions to near-zero.

The fund's investors include Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, LinkedIn Corp co-founder Reid Hoffman, Amazon Inc Chief Executive Jeff Bezos and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson among others.

The fund is an investment vehicle of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, an informal club of private investors and institutions from around the world, who have agreed to pump seed money into energy research and development.