The Walt Disney Company on Thursday announced it will make a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI and will allow users to make videos with its copyrighted characters on its Sora app.
OpenAI launched Sora in September, and it allows users to create short videos by simply typing in a prompt.
As part of the startup's new three-year licensing agreement with Disney, Sora users will be able make content with more than 200 characters across Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars starting next year.
"The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence marks an important moment for our industry, and through this collaboration with OpenAI we will thoughtfully and responsibly extend the reach of our storytelling through generative AI, while respecting and protecting creators and their works," Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement.
Tune in at 10:30 a.m. ET as Disney CEO Bob Iger and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman joins CNBC TV to discuss the media giant's investment. Watch in real time on CNBC+ or the CNBC Pro stream.
As part of the agreement, Disney said it will receive warrants to purchase additional equity and will become a major OpenAI customer.
Disney is deploying OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT to its employees and will work with its technology to build new tools and experiences, according to a release.
When Sora launched this fall, the app rocketed to the top of Apple's App Store and generated a storm of controversy as users flooded the platform with videos of popular brands and characters.
The Motion Picture Association said in October that OpenAI needed to take "immediate and decisive action" to prevent copyright infringement on Sora.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said more "granular control" over character generation was coming, according to a blog post following the launch.
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