Bill Gates And Donald Trump Held A Chat About Clean Energy

Bill Gates just announced a new $1 billion investment in clean energy, called "Breakthrough Energy Ventures." The billionaire philanthropist has teamed up with Jack Ma, Vinod Khosla and Jon Doerr and will invest in energy companies focused on green technologies.

Speaking as a guest on CNBC's "Squawk Box" segment on Tuesday, Gates touted the fact that clean energy is cheaper than dirty energy — not to mention better for the environment.

Chat With The President-Elect

Gates held a brief phone call with President-elect Donald Trump and shared details of the conversation with Recode. A key theme of the phone call and Gates' approach with his fund is pitching clean energy as a good deal — something Trump certainly can relate to.

"You have to look at the energy market broadly, and we have to make the case to the Congress about investing in innovation, and the executive branch has to see it as a good deal," Gates told Recode. "But, just to be clear, that's the government piece. Breakthrough Energy Ventures, no matter what happens to the energy R&D budget, we are going to go out and find the ideas that are out there. It's just more favorable if governments as a whole are putting more into the basic research level."

Image Credit: By DFID - UK Department for International Development (Bill Gates speaking at DFID) [CC BY 2.0 or OGL (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/1/)], via Wikimedia Commons