A tech podcast inspired AI workers to donate $40 million to improve the lives of chickens, pigs, and other factory-farmed animals

As AI firms like OpenAI and Anthropic race toward IPO, they’re expected to create a new wave of millionaires and billionaires—and unleash billions of dollars in charitable giving. One of the major causes already attracting that wealth may come as a surprise: factory-farmed animals.

This year alone, donors tied to the AI industry have contributed roughly $40 million to efforts aimed at improving the lives of chickens, pigs, and other animals raised in industrial agriculture, according to Lewis Bollard, who has spent the past decade leading farm animal welfare work at Coefficient Giving.

“With the young AI crowd, there’s way more of a willingness to say, ‘Yeah, I’ll just sign a million-dollar check. Sure,” Bollard told Forbes.