It’s difficult to imagine a business supporting another as strongly as Bob Iger’s Disney has for Sam Altman’s OpenAI. On the same day that Disney initiated legal proceedings against Google for supposedly utilizing its intellectual property without authorization, it also licensed part of that property to OpenAI’s video creation tool, Sora. To underline its position in the AI competition, Iger invested $1 billion in Altman’s enterprise.
While the timing suggests a mutual benefit, the arrangement appears to favor Iger more than Altman. OpenAI’s current expenditure indicates that $1 billion only suffices for 3-4 weeks of its projected losses or just one-thousandth of its financial obligations. OpenAI would require over 1,001 agreements with Disney to achieve sustainability. In contrast, Disney secures an investment in the company, a presence in the AI sector, and a flow of user-generated content for Disney+.
What could lead Altman to accept such an arrangement? Possibly due to the financial difficulties facing OpenAI, which may be further exposed with forthcoming inquiries and evaluations. The Atlantic referred to OpenAI as the “Netscape of AI,” alluding to Netscape’s failure to contend with tech behemoths such as Microsoft.
OpenAI is experiencing significant financial setbacks. Deutsche Bank analyst Jim Reid predicts losses of $140 billion from 2024 to 2029. With obligations exceeding $1 trillion related to new infrastructure investment, Reid’s assertion that OpenAI can endure that timeframe might be overly optimistic.
Although OpenAI’s financial data remains confidential, Altman appears to favor a spending rate akin to that seen during the dotcom bubble era. In the initial half of 2025, OpenAI reported revenues of $4.3 billion contrasted with expenses of $17.8 billion. No start-up has functioned under such expected losses.
A billion-dollar agreement with Disney accounts for less than a month of losses, necessitating further partnerships. Disney joins the ranks of companies like Softbank, Microsoft, and NVIDIA, whose support will be vital if OpenAI’s funds deplete. OpenAI may look towards these corporations or even the U.S. government for a financial rescue. Should all else fail, Altman might wish for someone like Iger to do for OpenAI what AOL accomplished for Netscape.