Key Points
- Disney will not proceed with a planned $1 billion investment in OpenAI following the shutdown of its Sora platform.
- The deal had included licensing Disney intellectual property for use in generative AI products.
- OpenAI is shifting focus to enterprise services amid growing competition in the AI market.
The Walt Disney Company is no longer moving forward with its planned $1 billion investment in ChatGPT developer OpenAI after the technology company announced it was winding down its generative AI platform Sora.
The decision to close Sora in the coming weeks comes as OpenAI tightens its focus on enterprise services and other applications for its tech.
In December, Disney agreed to make a $1 billion investment in OpenAI as part of a comprehensive licensing arrangement that allowed Sora and other generative AI products to use its intellectual property, including its characters.
Now, with the closure of Sora and OpenAI moving in other directions, Disney has decided not to move forward with the deal. It doesn’t appear any of the promised $1 billion was actually delivered to OpenAI.
“We will continue to engage with AI platforms to find new ways to meet fans where they are while responsibly embracing new technologies that respect IP and the rights of creators,” a Disney spokesperson told reporters on Tuesday.
OpenAI faces tougher competition in the generative AI space as other products like Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini catch up to ChatGPT and, in some cases, outperform the service.
The company has also faced public backlash from its decision last month to forge a licensing agreement with the Department of Defense, allowing its large language models to be used for military readiness applications.
OpenAI tried to reassure the public that its tech would not be used for domestic surveillance or by intelligence agencies like the National Security Agency (NSA). The deal was signed around the time that the Pentagon was preparing a large-scale military operation against Iran, though the timing appears coincidental.
Disney’s approach to generative AI has been more antagonistic than welcoming: The entertainment giant is one of several studios suing Midjourney in federal court on accusations that the company trained its image-generating app on copyrighted materials.
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