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Disney invests $1 billion in OpenAI in deal that brings its characters to AI video platform Sora

Disney and OpenAI announced a major partnership on Thursday.

Max Knoblauch

Disney has become the first major content licensing partner with OpenAI’s Sora in a new three-year agreement that will also see the entertainment juggernaut make a $1 billion investment in the AI company.

The agreement will grant Sora and ChatGPT more than 200 characters from Disney properties like Marvel, Pixar, and “Star Wars,” conceivably allowing users to make those characters do whatever they can think up. It’s unclear what stake Disney will receive in OpenAI with its 10-figure investment.

According to a press release: “Alongside the licensing agreement, Disney will become a major customer of OpenAI, using its APIs to build new products, tools, and experiences, including for Disney+, and deploying ChatGPT for its employees.”

In a statement about the deal, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said it “shows how AI companies and creative leaders can work together responsibly to promote innovation that benefits society, respect the importance of creativity, and help works reach vast new audiences.”

For Disney, the partnership is a bit of an AI tune change. In June, the company sued AI photo generator Midjourney on copyright grounds. In September, it sent a cease and desist letter to Character.AI and sued Chinese AI company MiniMax, alleging that its product “pirates and plunders Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works on a massive scale.”

In a move seemingly related to the deal, Disney’s lawyers sent a cease and desist letter to Google on Wednesday night, per Variety.

As quoted by the outlet, the letter alleges that “Google is infringing Disney’s copyrights on a massive scale, by copying a large corpus of
Disney’s copyrighted works without authorization to train and develop generative artificial intelligence (‘AI’) models and services, and by using AI models and services to commercially exploit and distribute copies of its protected works to consumers in violation of Disney’s copyrights.”

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Nike sinks to lowest level since 2014 after warning of “challenged” sales environment in Q4 report

Did Nike do it?

Investors had a mixed reaction after the global sports apparel company reported its fourth quarter earnings on Tuesday after the bell. Shares initially rose 5% as Nike beat out Wall Street expectations amid a hefty tariff refund bonus. However, the stock then sank to its lowest level since August 2014 in postmarket trading.

Here are the Q4 numbers:

  • Revenue of $11.0 billion (estimate: $10.8 billion).

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $0.20 (estimate: $0.12).

Ahead of this report, Nike warned that results would be flattered by a one-time tariff refund (now estimated at roughly $0.52 per share for the bottom line). That gave the company an extra cushion in snapping its streak of seven quarters of year-over-year profit declines.

Over the past year, the company had been punished by tariffs on imported goods, stagnant consumer spending, and increasing competition from other footwear brands like New Balance, Adidas, and Hoka.

Outgoing CFO Matthew Friend deemed it an “increasingly challenging operating environment, where sell-through remains challenged.”

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