Mitchell Hashimoto's family is following up their 2024 pledge with another $400,000 structured as two annual installments, lifting their overall commitment to the Zig Software Foundation to $700,000 while he continues using AI tools in his own work.
My family is donating another $400,000 to the Zig Software Foundation. Zig is exceptional software. I use AI every day. Zig has one of the strongest anti-AI policies in open source. We disagree on some things, but respect doesn’t require agreement. https://mitchellh.com/writing/zig-donation-2026
Hashimoto has noted the foundation's unusually strict limits on LLM-generated code or text yet chose to keep supporting the project anyway.
The new pledge keeps the same annual pattern as the earlier gift, though any longer-term effects on Zig development remain to be seen.
Positive users praised Mitchell Hashimoto's $400k donation to the Zig Software Foundation for supporting the project, while negative users criticized Zig's anti-AI stance or called the gift insignificant.
No Digg Deeper questions have been answered for this story yet.
Goat behavior from Mitchell. Would love to see more of this in the world.
My family is donating another $400,000 to the Zig Software Foundation. Zig is exceptional software. I use AI every day. Zig has one of the strongest anti-AI policies in open source. We disagree on some things, but respect doesn’t require agreement. https://mitchellh.com/writing/zig-donation-2026
@mitchellh 🐐
My family is donating another $400,000 to the Zig Software Foundation. Zig is exceptional software. I use AI every day. Zig has one of the strongest anti-AI policies in open source. We disagree on some things, but respect doesn’t require agreement. https://mitchellh.com/writing/zig-donation-2026
@mitchellh Major respect, that’s awesome!
My family is donating another $400,000 to the Zig Software Foundation. Zig is exceptional software. I use AI every day. Zig has one of the strongest anti-AI policies in open source. We disagree on some things, but respect doesn’t require agreement. https://mitchellh.com/writing/zig-donation-2026
@ischichan Haha thanks. We actually require each other to present our causes that are niche and justify the donation. My wife knows what Zig is now and why I believe it matters :)
@mitchellh That's amazing! I have been donating about 10 pounds every month for many years now. It's not much, but it's an honest donation :)
"We disagree on some things, but respect doesn’t require agreement." - This pisses me off.
Not because of what it says but because that isn't the norm that we live by... we're now at the extremes.
We've never lived by it to the full extent but in the past it used to be fun, roasting each other for our tech stack's choices(e.g. js vs php, xbox vs ps5( nowadays even those turn people into hating each other)).
Now people decide whether you are an absolute piece of shit based on a technical decision you make, be it the use of a framework or a programming language.
@mitchellh 400k is 0.04% of your total net worth. Stop flexing.
@mitchellh love2seeit. my secret not so secret prediction is that zig will not gain (contributor) traction because it chose to go the codeberg and no-LLM route. however, i'd give it a 40 per cent chance I am wrong and zig has enough traction already to survive
@mitchellh Knowing that something is done without any AI is a positive. Its like a hand made watch or guitar. I hope more projects take this approach.
@mitchellh pre ai beautiful world still exists somewhere, love it
@mitchellh As a fan of both Zig and Ghostty, we love to see it <3
@mitchellh
@mitchellh 💜
@x509dot It’s also a fraction of what I donate per year. You also have your number wrong (your denominator is too big). Not a flex, or I’d list and total all that too. There’s other reasons to sharing this. I’ve noted this before.
@alspinu @mitchellh No. You used AI, got called out, and now you’re doing it again by reframing this as language tribalism.
The issue is AI-generated slop being passed off as human judgment in OSS discourse.
That’s the room. Read it. Jesus Fuck, dude.
@mitchellh Funding the code while keeping the AI on the sidelines, the only thing it’ll generate is a thank‑you note.
@mitchellh family be like: the heck is zig? ... jokes aside, this is Awesome Mitchell, zig is an amazing project.
@zaki_chahboun We can only donate to recognize IRS 501c3 organizations and require audited financials and reports for what funds are used for. Standard practice. For outsized donations, for small stuff (hundreds) of course we can just do direct donations.
@mitchellh ⚡️
@mitchellh And he does it again 🫡
