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Disney and OpenAI Are Bringing Disney Characters to the Sora App

Dec 11, 2025 09:42:00 -0500 by Angela Palumbo | #AI

Disney will be making a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI. (RONDA CHURCHILL/AFP via Getty Images)

Key Points

Walt Disney characters are coming to Sora, the generative artificial-intelligence video app, via a partnership between OpenAI and the House of Mouse.

Disney and OpenAI on Thursday said they reached a three-year licensing agreement. Under the deal, Sora will be able to add characters from Disney’s franchises—like Mickey Mouse, Cinderella, and Iron Man—into user-generated videos.

“Technological innovation has continually shaped the evolution of entertainment, bringing with it new ways to create and share great stories with the world,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said in the news release.

Disney also shared additional details of a broader partnership with OpenAI. The entertainment company will use OpenAI’s APIs to build new products, tools, and experiences, including for the streaming service Disney+, and will deploy ChatGPT for its employees. Disney will also make a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI and receive warrants to purchase additional equity.

“When you look at Disney, you see an iconic brand. You see a company that is traditionally pretty protective of their brand and has a very high bar in terms of their IP and trademark and how well known it is,” Evan Schlossman, principal at SuRo Capital, told Barr on’s. SuRo Capital is an investor in OpenAI.

“So for them to strike this deal with OpenAI, I think shows in one hand a sort of trust in OpenAI, but on another hand, it also shows a commitment to a recognition of where the technology is going,” Schlossman said.

AI-generation companies cannot allow users to create content that pulls from intellectual property from companies like Disney. Disney sent a cease and desist letter to Alphabet’s Google on Wednesday, alleging copyright infringement.

In the letter viewed by Barron’s, Disney alleges that Google is infringing Disney’s copyrights “on a massive scale,” by copying copyrighted works without authorization to train and develop gen-AI models and services, and by using AI models and services to commercially distribute copies of its protected works to consumers. Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

“We’ve been aggressive at protecting our IP, and we’ve gone after other companies that have not honored our IP, not respected our IP, not valued it. And this is another example of us doing just that,” Iger said in an interview with CNBC on Thursday.

Disney has also sent cease-and-desist letters to Meta Platforms and Character.AI. With fellow entertainment company NBCUniversal, it has sued AI photo generator Midjourney, alleging illegal use of copyrighted content. Meta and Midjourney didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Schlossman told Barron’s that he thinks Disney partnering with OpenAI in this way helps the entertainment company protect its IP by giving them “the ability to control the narrative.”

The use of AI in entertainment has been watched closely for several years now. Members of the union SAG-AFTRA went on strike in July 2023, saying at the time that it was due in part to employers’ “unwillingness to offer a deal that includes fair and fundamental A.I. protections.”

The strike was eventually resolved in November 2023 with an agreement that included digital replica terms and AI protections. Among the list of protections, SAG-AFTRA members must now give consent before AI can be used to recreate their faces or voices.

SAG-AFTRA said in a statement Thursday that it will closely monitor the OpenAI and Disney deal and its implementation to ensure compliance with contracts and with applicable laws protecting image, voice, and likeness.

“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,” Iger said in the release.

Disney won’t allow the use of actors’ voices on Sora. Disney and OpenAI also said Thursday that they are maintaining “robust controls” to prevent the generation of illegal or harmful content.

Shares of Disney closed up 2.4% on Thursday.

Write to Angela Palumbo at angela.palumbo@dowjones.com