Disney and Universal sue AI image company Midjourney for unlicensed use of Star Wars, The Simpsons and more
The Walt Disney logo is displayed on screen during the Walt Disney Studios presentation at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace at CinemaCon 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 3, 2025.
Valerie Macon | AFP | Getty Images
Disney and Universal joined forces in a lawsuit against artificial intelligence image creator Midjourney, alleging copyright infringement.
It is the first AI copyright lawsuit from Hollywood giants.
The lawsuit claims that the company used and distributed AI-generated characters from the movie studios like Star Wars, The Simpsons and other films and alleges that Midjourney disregarded requests to stop.
The studios included numerous examples in the suit of AI-generated images of characters from Cars, Toy Story, Shrek, The Avengers and the minions from Despicable Me.
Disney and Universal are demanding a jury trial, arguing that the actions threaten to “upend the bedrock incentives of U.S. copyright law.”
“Midjourney is the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism,” the movie studios said, calling the actions “calculated and willful.”
Both companies said they sent letters to Midjourney’s counsel to prevent further copyright infringement, but the company continued to release new iterations of its image generator.
“Midjourney, which has attracted millions of subscribers and made $300 million last year alone, is focused on its own bottom line and ignored Plaintiffs’ demands,” the suit says.
CNBC has reached out to Midjourney for comment on the case.
The rise of AI has raised the stakes in the media industry, and sparked concerns over how to protect content from illegal copyrighting. This is one of the most significant copyright legal battles to date involving AI.
“Creativity is the cornerstone of our business,” said Kimberley Harris, executive vice president and general counsel of NBCUniversal, in a statement. “We are bringing this action today to protect the hard work of all the artists whose work entertains and inspires us and the significant investment we make in our content.”
Midjourney told Disney it was reviewing the letter but never responded, according to the suit. Universal said Midjourney did not respond to its letter.
“We are bullish on the promise of AI technology and optimistic about how it can be used responsibly as a tool to further human creativity,” said Horacio Gutierrez, senior executive vice president and chief legal and compliance officer of The Walt Disney Company, in a statement. “But piracy is piracy, and the fact that it’s done by an AI company does not make it any less infringing.”
The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court Central District of California.
WATCH: Disney, Universal file complaint against AI company Midjourney alleging copyright
Disclosure: Universal is owned by NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC. Comcast owns NBCUniversal.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg makes a keynote speech during the Meta Connect annual event, at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on Sept. 25, 2024.
Manuel Orbegozo | Reuters
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Friday said Shengjia Zhao, the co-creator of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, will serve as the chief scientist of Meta Superintelligence Labs.
Zuckerberg has been on a multibillion-dollar artificial intelligence hiring blitz in recent weeks, highlighted by a $14 billion investment in Scale AI. In June, Zuckerberg announced a new organization called Meta Superintelligence Labs that’s made up of top AI researchers and engineers.
Zhao’s name was listed among other new hires in the June memo, but Zuckerberg said Friday that Zhao co-founded the lab and “has been our lead scientist from day one.” Zhao will work directly with Zuckerberg and Alexandr Wang, the former CEO of Scale AI who is acting as Meta’s chief AI officer.
“Shengjia has already pioneered several breakthroughs including a new scaling paradigm and distinguished himself as a leader in the field,” Zuckerberg wrote in a social media post. “I’m looking forward to working closely with him to advance his scientific vision.”
In addition to co-creating ChatGPT, Zhao helped build OpenAI’s GPT-4, mini models, 4.1 and o3, and he previously led synthetic data at OpenAI, according to Zuckerberg’s June memo.
Meta Superintelligence Labs will be where employees work on foundation models such as the open-source Llama family of AI models, products and Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Research projects.
The social media company will invest “hundreds of billions of dollars” into AI compute infrastructure, Zuckerberg said earlier this month.
“The next few years are going to be very exciting!” Zuckerberg wrote Friday.
WATCH: Meta announces massive ‘Prometheus’ & ‘Hyperion’ data center plans
Technology
Palantir joins list of 20 most valuable U.S. companies, with stock more than doubling in 2025
Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir Technologies, speaks on a panel titled Power, Purpose, and the New American Century at the Hill and Valley Forum at the U.S. Capitol on April 30, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images
Palantir has hit another major milestone in its meteoric stock rise. It’s now one of the 20 most valuable U.S. companies.
The provider of software and data analytics technology to defense agencies saw its stock rise more than 2% on Friday to another record, lifting the company’s market cap to $375 billion, which puts it ahead of Home Depot and Procter & Gamble. The company’s market value was already higher than Bank of America and Coca-Cola.
Palantir has more than doubled in value this year as investors ramp up bets on the company’s artificial intelligence business and closer ties to the U.S. government. Since its founding in 2003 by Peter Thiel, CEO Alex Karp and others, the company has steadily accrued a growing list of customers.
Revenue in Palantir’s U.S. government business increased 45% to $373 million in its most recent quarter, while total sales rose 39% to $884 million. The company next reports results on Aug. 4.
Earlier this year, Palantir soared ahead of Salesforce, IBM and Cisco into the top 10 U.S. tech companies by market cap.
Buying the stock at these levels requires investors to pay hefty multiples. Palantir currently trades for 273 times forward earnings, according to FactSet. The only other company in the top 20 with a triple-digit ratio is Tesla at 175.
With $3.1 billion in total revenue over the past year, Palantir is a fraction the size of the next smallest company by sales among the top 20 by market cap. Mastercard, which is valued at $518 billion, is closest with sales over the past four quarters of roughly $29 billion.
WATCH: Palantir’s Mike Gallagher: Enforcing a ceasefire will require a greater investment of American power
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