Disney und OpenAI schließen 1-Milliarden-Dollar Sora-Deal

Disney and OpenAI Sign Historic Partnership

The partnership between Walt Disney Company and OpenAI marks a historic milestone at the intersection of artificial intelligence and entertainment. Under the agreement, Disney's massive character portfolio meets OpenAI's video generation platform Sora. Mickey Mouse, Darth Vader, Iron Man, Elsa, and over 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars characters will now be available on the Sora platform.

Financial Scale and Strategic Importance

Disney's investment in OpenAI was announced at approximately $1 billion. This represents one of the largest steps in Disney's digital transformation strategy. The company aims to balance changing traditional media revenues with AI-powered new revenue models and interactive content experiences. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman described the deal as a critical step in bringing creative AI to the mainstream audience.

Sora Platform Evolution and Disney Impact

OpenAI's video generation platform Sora was first introduced in 2024. Since then, it made significant advances with Sora 2 bringing better physics understanding, realistic water dynamics, and complex movement simulation. The Disney deal dramatically increases Sora's commercial potential and gives the platform a unique content advantage over all competitors.

Industry Impact and Competitive Landscape

This deal redefines the relationship between Hollywood and the tech world. Traditional animation studios must acknowledge AI's role in creative processes. Independent content creators gain the opportunity to produce professional-quality video with Disney characters at a fraction of traditional costs. Google's Veo platform and Meta's video AI projects are pursuing similar partnerships, but Disney choosing OpenAI gives Sora a significant competitive advantage that will define new standards for AI-based content creation in the entertainment industry.

AI Sector and Domain Market

These developments once again demonstrate how rapidly the artificial intelligence sector is growing. According to official registration data, .ai domain count grew from approximately 143,000 in July 2022 to over 533,000 by October 2024 and exceeded 632,000 as of March 2025. According to Domain Name Wire, over 20,000 new .ai domains are registered every month. This growth rate has made the .ai extension one of the most compelling assets in the digital investment landscape.

In the secondary market, .ai domains are performing strongly. In 2024, 20 .ai domains appeared among the top 100 domain sales overall. The average sale price reached $6,525, while the highest publicly disclosed .ai sale was fin.ai at $1 million in March 2025. Other notable sales include you.ai at $700,000, npc.ai at $250,000, and ace.ai at $205,000. According to DNJournal data, all top 13 positions in the 2025 ccTLD sales chart were occupied by .ai domains.

The biggest domain market news of 2026 was ai.com selling for $70 million. Purchased by Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek with cryptocurrency, this sale broke the all-time record for domain sales. The previous record was held by voice.com, sold for $30 million in 2019. OpenAI's purchase of chat.com for $15.5 million also demonstrates the importance major players place on domain investments.

In 2021, Google classified the .ai extension as a generic country code top-level domain. This means .ai domains can be used in global search engine optimization without any geographic restrictions. For companies operating in the artificial intelligence sector, the .ai extension has become a powerful branding tool that instantly reflects sector identity. Successful companies like Perplexity.ai, Character.ai, and Stability.ai deliberately chose this extension.

For the government of Anguilla, this growth is vital. For this small Caribbean island of 15,000 people, .ai revenues have become the third largest income source. Communications Minister Jose Vanterpool told BBC that revenue from .ai domains has reached approximately 47 percent of state income. Registration fees vary from $140 to $200 per year depending on registrar, with a minimum 2-year registration period. Since January 2025, Identity Digital has taken over technical management of the .ai extension. The renewal rate exceeds 90 percent, a strong indicator that domain owners continue to protect their investments.

For entrepreneurs and investors looking to establish their presence in the AI ecosystem, .ai domain names remain a strategic asset. Short, meaningful, industry-relevant names are being claimed rapidly. With over 161 million .com registrations compared to just 632,000 .ai registrations, valuable names are still accessible. Search for the right .ai domain on Spaceship and browse premium domains on AlanAdi.ai.