walt disney company announced Thursday that it will make a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI to enable users to create videos with copyrighted characters in its Sora app.
OpenAI announced Sora in September, allowing users to create short videos simply by typing prompts.
As part of the company’s new three-year licensing agreement with Disney, Sora users will be able to create content with more than 200 characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars starting next year.
“The rapid advances in artificial intelligence are an important moment for our industry,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement. “Through this collaboration with OpenAI, we are expanding the reach of generative AI storytelling in a thoughtful and responsible way, while respecting and protecting creators and their work.”
As part of the deal, Disney said it will receive warrants to purchase additional stock and become a major customer of OpenAI.
According to the release, Disney is deploying OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot to its employees and plans to work with the company’s technology to build new tools and experiences.
When Sora was released this fall, the app shot to the top. apple’s The App Store sparked a storm of controversy as users flooded the platform with videos of popular brands and characters.
The Motion Picture Association of Japan said in October that OpenAI must take “immediate and decisive action” to prevent Sora’s copyright infringement.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a post-launch blog post that there will be more “grained control” over character generation.
Disney CEO Bob Iger and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appear on CNBC on December 11, 2025.
CNBC
Media companies including Disney have launched a series of new legal battles to protect their intellectual property as AI startups rapidly change the way people interact with content online.
Disney sent a cease and desist letter google Late Wednesday, it claimed the company had infringed copyrights on a “massive scale.” In the letter, seen by CNBC, Disney said Google was using its copyrighted material to train models and distributing copies of protected content without permission.
Universal and Disney have filed a lawsuit accusing AI image production company Midjourney of inappropriately using and distributing AI-generated characters in their films. Disney also sent a cease-and-desist letter to Character.AI in September, warning the company against using its copyrighted characters without permission.
Disney’s deal with OpenAI suggests that Disney is not eliminating its AI platform completely.
The companies confirmed their commitment to using AI that “protects the safety of users and the rights of creators” and “respects creative industries,” according to the release.
OpenAI also agreed to maintain “robust controls” to prevent illegal or harmful content from being generated on the platform.
Characters available through this deal include Mickey Mouse, Ariel, Cinderella, Iron Man, Darth Vader, and more. Disney and OpenAI said the deal does not include the likeness or voice of the talent.
Users can also draw from the same intellectual property while using ChatGPT images, allowing them to create images using natural language prompts.
“Disney is the global gold standard for storytelling, and we’re excited to partner with Sora and ChatGPT Images to expand the ways people create and experience great content,” Altman said in a statement.
A select selection of Sora’s videos will also be available on Disney’s streaming platform Disney+.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. With Comcast’s planned Versant spinoff, Versant will become CNBC’s new parent company.
WATCH: We tested OpenAI’s Sora 2 AI video app to find out why Hollywood is concerned
