Walt Disney and OpenAI announced a three-year licensing deal on Thursday that will allow users to create short videos featuring beloved Disney characters through artificial intelligence.
The partnership includes a $1 billion equity investment by Disney in OpenAI, as well as warrants to purchase additional shares in the ChatGPT maker.
The deal marks the first time that a major entertainment company has adopted generic AI at this scale, licensing its highly protected characters from Mickey Mouse to Marvel superheroes and Star Wars’ Darth Vader for AI content creation.
The partnership represents a dramatic change for an industry that has largely battled AI companies in court.
Disney and other creative industry giants were suing AI firms like OpenAI, Perplexity and Anthropic, accusing them of illegally using their content to train their technology.
The entertainment giant continued that legal campaign on Wednesday, sending a separate cease-and-desist letter to Google over the search engine giant’s illegal use of its intellectual property to train AI models.
For OpenAI, the deal comes at a sensitive time as it faces growing questions about the sustainability of its business model, with costs rising much faster than revenues despite nearly a billion daily users worldwide.
Under the agreement, fans will be able to produce and share AI-generated content featuring more than 200 characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars franchises on OpenAI’s Sora video generation platform and ChatGPIT.
Disney shares rose up to two percent on Thursday following the announcement.
“The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence is a watershed moment for our industry,” said Disney CEO Robert Iger. He said the collaboration would “expand the reach of our storytelling thoughtfully and responsibly.”
Characters available for fan creations will include Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Elsa from Frozen, and Marvel heroes like Iron Man and Captain America, as well as Star Wars icons including Darth Vader and Yoda.
The agreement does not cover talent parity and voice actors, amid deep concern in Hollywood about the impact of AI on the creative industry.
“It doesn’t in any way represent a threat to the creators in any way — quite the contrary, in fact. I think it honors them and respects them, partly because there’s a licensing fee associated with it,” Iger told CNBC.
In a joint interview with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on CNBC, Iger stressed that the deal only covers videos no longer than 30 seconds and that the technology will not be used to produce longer ones.
Beyond licensing, Disney will deploy OpenAI’s technology to create new products and experiences for streaming platform Disney+ and make ChatGPT available to its employees.
“Disney is the global gold standard for storytelling,” said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. “This agreement shows how AI companies and creative leaders can work together responsibly.”
Both companies stressed their commitment to responsible AI use, with OpenAI promising age-appropriate policies and controls to prevent illegal or harmful content creation and protect creator rights.
In Disney’s complaint against Google, OpenAI’s biggest rival in the AI field, the entertainment giant accuses Google of infringing Disney’s copyrights on a large scale by copying a large collection of content without authorization to train and develop AI models and services.
“We’ve been aggressive in protecting our IP, and we’ve gone after other companies that … haven’t valued it, and this is another example of us doing that,” Iger told CNBC.
published – December 12, 2025 09:43 am IST