Disney and OpenAI just announced a huge $1bn licensing deal for Sora AI

A great, big, beautiful, AI-filled tomorrow

(Credit: OpenAI)

• 🤝 Disney and OpenAI have announced a bumper deal to allow Disney characters into OpenAI’s Sora and ChatGPT Images models

• 😮 It means that users will soon be able to create short videos and images using some of their favourite Disney characters from across its owned IPs

• 💰 As part of the deal, it means Disney will become an investor in OpenAI, with an initial $1bn in equity, plus potential for more

• 🤔 The deal also sees Disney using OpenAI’s APIs to further its own products, including Disney+ and its own internal processes

The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI just announced a huge licensing deal with the latter’s Sora AI video platform.

According to a press release, the new deal means Disney is the “first content licensing partner on Sora, OpenAI’s short-form generative AI video platform” as part of a new three-year agreement.

Sora and ChatGPT Images are expected to start generating fan-inspired videos with Disney’s multi-brand licensed characters in early 2026.

The deal means that Sora can generate short-form AI videos using “more than 200 animated, masked and creature characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars”, including “costumes, props, vehicles and iconic environments.”

Among the Disney characters featured are classic ones such as Mickey and Minnie Mouse, plus the likes of Cinderella, Simba, Mufasa, and those in Pixar and Marvel films, including those from Toy Story, Encanto, Frozen, Deadpool, Iron Man and lots more besides.

It also means that ChatGPT’s Images feature will be able to take a few words from a user and turn them into fully-generated images using Disney IP, although the press release is quick to stress that this agreement doesn’t include “any talent likenesses or voices”.

Both Sora and ChatGPT Images are expected to start generating Disney videos and images in “early 2026”, according to the release.

The agreement also means that a selection of these Sora videos will be available to stream on Disney+, presumably ones that are picked out as the ‘best’ that are created.

In addition to the use of Disney characters for Sora, the Walt Disney Company becomes a “major customer of OpenAI”, according to the press release, using its APIs to “build new products, tools, and experiences, including for Disney+, and deploying ChatGPT for its employees.”

Disney has pledged to make a $1bn equity investment into OpenAI, with “warrants to purchase additional equity” as part of this bumper deal.

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Reece Bithrey is a journalist with bylines for Trusted Reviews, Digital Foundry, PC Gamer, TechRadar and more. He also has his own blog, UNTITLED, and graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in International History and Politics in 2023.