Disney and OpenAI partner — Disney character videos come to Sora, with a $1 billion investment
The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI announced on December 11, 2025, that they had signed a three-year licensing agreement. In this major partnership, users will be able to generate and share short fan videos on Sora using more than 200 characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, and other brands under the Disney umbrella, with Disney also making a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI.
Details
- Terms of the agreement: Under the three-year licensing deal, users will be able to create, watch, and share user-generated short videos on Sora featuring more than 200 characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, and other brands
- Distribution tie-in: Some of the fan-generated short videos are planned to also be viewable on Disney+
- Investment: Disney is making a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI, along with acquiring warrants for additional shares
- Disney’s use of OpenAI: Disney becomes a major OpenAI customer, using its API to build new products, tools, and experiences for Disney+, as well as adopting ChatGPT internally
- Rollout timing: Fan videos using characters from Disney’s various brands were expected to become available to generate on Sora and ChatGPT Images starting in early 2026
- Exclusivity period: Later reporting revealed that the agreement was initially a one-year exclusive deal, after which it would open up to other companies
What happened next
Despite the fanfare surrounding this partnership, concerns over copyright and deepfakes, combined with Sora’s own worsening economics, led the Sora business — including its relationship with Disney — to contract heading into 2026. That March, OpenAI went on to announce the shutdown of the Sora app.