Why Iger Gave OpenAI the Keys to Disney’s Vault episode artwork

EPISODE · Dec 16, 2025 · 32 MIN

Why Iger Gave OpenAI the Keys to Disney’s Vault

from The Town with Matthew Belloni · host The Ringer

Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to discuss Disney entering a licensing agreement with Sora and investing $1 billion in OpenAI. The deal allows OpenAI to use characters from Disney’s deep pocket of popular IP in its Sora AI video generator. They break down the details of the deal, why Disney did it, how CEO Bob Iger handled the announcement, whether other companies will follow suit, and what this means for the long-term tension between Hollywood and AI (03:12). Matt finishes the show with a prediction about Timothée Chalamet’s press tour and Oscar chances (26:25). For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, ‘What I’m Hearing ...,’ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Email us your thoughts! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Host: Matt Belloni Guest: Lucas Shaw Producers: Craig Horlbeck and Jessie Lopez Theme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Dec 16, 2025

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Why Iger Gave OpenAI the Keys to Disney’s Vault

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