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US-based cultivated meat producer Upside Foods has reached a global audience after featuring in a YouTube video by content creator Jimmy Donaldson, widely known as MrBeast, highlighting the growing consumer interest in alternative proteins.
The video, titled '$1 vs $1,000,000,000 Futuristic Tech!' and posted earlier this week (24 January 2026), has already surpassed 70 million views.
In a segment filmed at Upside’s Engineering, Production and Innovation Center (EPIC) in California, MrBeast toured the facility, sampled the company’s cultivated chicken alongside conventional poultry and commented that he could not distinguish between the two.
During the visit, MrBeast tours the production site and samples Upside’s cultivated chicken alongside a conventional chicken product. In the video, he says he is unable to tell the difference between the two and incorrectly guesses the cultivated version as the conventional chicken.
“MrBeast and his friends visited our facility to learn how cultivated meat is made and experience a tasting,” Upside CEO Uma Valeti wrote on LinkedIn. “This segment highlights innovations setting the foundation for the future of humanity.”
Upside Foods, founded in 2015, received USDA regulatory clearance for cultivated chicken in 2023 and opened its EPIC production site in 2021 to support scalable operations.
Last year, the company paused construction of its Rubicon facility in Illinois, citing challenging funding conditions, and redirected investment to expand its California site.
With over 460 million subscribers on YouTube, MrBeast operates one of the largest digital content platforms worldwide, with videos frequently attracting millions of views within days of release.
By comparison, consumer-facing exposure for cultivated meat companies has typically been limited to small-scale pilots, invitation-only tastings or trade media coverage. No other cultivated meat producer has previously appeared in creator-led digital content with comparable global reach.
Among one of the most established companies in the cultivated sector, Upside Foods received USDA regulatory clearance for the sale of cultivated chicken in 2023 and opened its EPIC facility in 2021 as part of its efforts to develop scalable production capabilities.
In 2024, the cultivated meat company announced it was pausing construction of its Rubicon cell-based meat production facility in Glenview, Illinois. Citing a challenging funding environment, the business said it would instead refocus resources on expanding its existing EPIC in California, doubling its investment in the site.
Prior interest in cultivated meat
MrBeast's appearance at Upside Foods follows earlier public comments about alternative protein.
In a 2022 interview with Forbes, he said he was interested in the possibility of selling lab-grown meat through his spin-off burger chain, MrBeast Burger.
At the time, MrBeast said he would consider selling cultivated meat if the product met consumer expectations on taste and quality. He told Forbes: “The second someone can make lab-grown meat that actually tastes good enough where people don’t even notice, then I’m all for it. I’m switching in a heartbeat".
The appearance at Upside Foods marks the first time MrBeast has been shown visiting a cultivated meat production facility and tasting a cultivated meat product on camera.
The visit also comes several years after his initial comment, during a period in which cultivated meat has moved from early pilot trials to regulatory approval in select markets, including the US.
Digital exposure as a market signal for cultivated meat
The inclusion of Upside Foods in one of the world’s most widely viewed creator-led videos is a rare opportunity for the cultivated meat sector, which continues to face limited consumer exposure.
Unlike plant-based alternatives, cultivated meat is largely absent from supermarkets and fast-food chains. Regulatory approvals remain narrow, production volumes are small, and most companies have relied on pilot programmes, invitation-only tastings or trade events.
As a result, consumer familiarity with cultivated meat is low, even as investment and technology advance.
High-reach digital platforms allow companies to showcase products to a global audience without immediate commercial availability, providing visibility that can inform regulators, attract foodservice partners and signal market readiness to investors.
For cultivated meat firms navigating long regulatory timelines, such exposure helps build awareness and shapes perceptions ahead of future market entry, even if it does not generate immediate sales.
Cultivated meat faces uneven global approval landscape
The appearance of Upside Foods in MrBeast's video comes as the cultivated meat sector faces heightened regulatory and political scrutiny, particularly in the US.
While the US approved the sale of cultivated chicken in 2023 following regulatory clearances from the FDA and USDA, the policy environment has since become more complex. Several US states, including Florida and Alabama, have introduced measures that ban the sale of cultivated meat.
In Texas, cultivated meat companies Wildtype and Upside Foods filed a federal lawsuit last year against a state law that bans the sale of 'cell-cultured protein'. The companies argue that the law was created to protect Texas’ conventional agriculture industry from competition, not to address food safety concerns.
Outside the US, regulatory pathways remain uneven. Singapore is the only country where cultivated meat has been sold commercially, and only on a limited scale. In the EU, UK and parts of Asia, approval processes are ongoing and may take several years.
As a result, most cultivated meat companies remain in pre-commercial or pilot stages, with few opportunities for consumer sales.