Disney and OpenAI sign landmark deal… and we saw it coming! | E2223

This Week in Startups

Jason Calacanis

Technology

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 December 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This Week In Startups is made possible by:

LinkedIn Ads - http://linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups

DevStats - https://www.devstats.com/twist

Crusoe - https://crusoe.ai/build

Today’s show:

FINALLY, you can hang out with Kylo Ren and Olaf the Snowman… thanks to the magic of AI.

On TWiST, we’re digging into the mega OpenAI-Disney deal. Mickey is giving Sam Altman a $1 billion investment AND will allow is copyrighted characters to appear in Sora and ChatGPT images.

Of course, Jason predicted this would happen WAY BACK during the summer months and even showed off his “Darth Calacanis” creation on the “All-In Podcast.”

PLUS Amazon has been launching and pulling AI features from Prime Video… what gives? Jason’s predictions on the coming AI blowback and who’s on what side. Why he’s so focused on Education, Health Care, and Housing as issues. AND why founders should always take calls from Big Companies, even if it might just be a fishing expedition.

It’s a new Friday TWiST! Check it out!

Timestamps:

(00:00) Lon joins Alex and Jason to talk about the big Disney-OpenAI deal bringing Disney characters to Sora

(03:10) Jason totally called the Disney-OpenAI stuff on All-In

(9:42) LinkedIn Ads: Start converting your B2B audience into high quality leads today. Launch your first campaign and get $250 FREE when you spend at least $250. Go to http://linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups to claim your credit.

(18:59) DevStats - DevStats integrates your dev work and your business goals into a shared language that everyone can understand. Get 20% off, plus access to their dedicated Slack channel. Just go to https://www.devstats.com/twist.

(20:15) Why Amazon Prime Video pulled its AI recaps and anime dubs

(24:44) Who gets to set the rules around AI: The Debate Continues

(26:13) Jason’s predictions on the AI blowback coming in 2026… with clips!

(30:11) Crusoe Cloud: Crusoe is the AI factory company. Reliable infrastructure and expert support. Visit https://crusoe.ai/build to reserve your capacity for the latest GPUs today.

(31:21) Is AI here to help people or replace them?

(35:55) It’s all about EHH: Education, Health Care, Housing

(40:47) How all of this and MORE will be impacted directly by AI automation

(45:35) Why Alex wants to lower the temperature around AI Doomerism

(51:19) JUST FOR FOUNDERS: When should you take a call from a BigCo?

(53:45) Why Jason thinks just about everyone in media will lose to TikTok and YouTube

Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com/

Check out the TWIST500: https://twist500.com

Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp

Follow Lon:

X: https://x.com/lons

Follow Alex:

X: https://x.com/alex

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm/

Follow Jason:

X: https://twitter.com/Jason

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis/

Thank you to our partners:

(30:11) Crusoe Cloud: Crusoe is the AI factory company. Reliable infrastructure and expert support. Visit https://crusoe.ai/build to reserve your capacity for the latest GPUs today.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Open AI is partnering with Disney.
0:02.9	SORA was a potential IP catastrophe for Open AI.
0:06.1	Litigation concerns, worries about payments.
0:08.2	Well, they've ironed it out.
0:09.7	So Disney's going to invest $1 billion into Open AI.
0:12.8	It's going to have warrants for future purchases.
0:14.7	And I think this is a big damn deal.
0:16.1	If you're not part of one of these deals as Disney sent a cease-a-diss letter to Google the day before the
0:22.7	Open AI deal was announced, you cannot use these IP. So it's really, I think, the first attempt to
0:28.7	figure out a sort of formalize this whole process. Like, here's what these collaborations will look
0:33.9	like. And if you don't have one of these collaborations, you don't get to use these
0:37.9	characters. So the most important thing here is now that there's a commercial relationship,
0:43.1	every other lawsuit that's going on, will be able to point to this, the New York Times versus
0:48.3	Open AI, Disney versus Google. They're all going to be able to point to this commercial
0:53.2	arrangement and say
0:54.3	that there is a cost to people stealing their content because this is a new business opportunity.
0:59.7	It was essential that somebody get a deal like this done. Now that we have a major deal like this,
1:05.8	every single LLM is going to have to do this.
1:08.3	This week in startups is brought to you by Cruceau Cloud.
1:12.1	Cruzo is the AI factory company, reliable infrastructure and expert support.
1:17.2	Visit cruzo.a.ai slash build to reserve your capacity for the latest GPUs today.
1:23.6	DevStats.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 24 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jason Calacanis, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Jason Calacanis and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.