Netflix Paid $587 Million for Ben Affleck’s AI Startup InterPositive
The cash deal brings InterPositive’s 16-person team and AI tools to Netflix as it expands generative-AI workflows in post-production.
- Netflix confirmed Friday it paid approximately $587 million in cash to acquire Ben Affleck's AI startup InterPositive, disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
- Affleck founded InterPositive in 2022 to develop AI tools keeping filmmakers at the center of the creative process, operating in stealth mode before the acquisition announcement on March 5.
- During Thursday's earnings call, Co-CEO Ted Sarandos revealed roughly 300 Netflix titles now use generative AI, citing The American Experiment's 17 minutes of AI-enhanced footage produced "twice as fast and at half the cost."
- Affleck joined Netflix as a senior adviser following the acquisition, while Sarandos stated cost savings will likely be reinvested into more content, emphasizing that great artists remain essential.
- Although the deal remains in its early stages, generative AI is scaling across Netflix's creative process amid ongoing industry sensitivity about how such technology impacts entertainment workers.
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Netflix bought InterPositive, an artificial intelligence startup founded in 2022 by actor and director Ben Affleck, in a deal worth as much as $587 million.
Ben Affleck's AI firm acquired for USD 587 million; streaming giant confirms deal in SEC filing
Netflix confirmed acquiring Ben Affleck's AI firm InterPositive for $587 million. The streaming giant absorbed the company's team and Affleck will advise. Affleck believes AI will enhance filmmaking, not replace creative work. Generative AI is already impacting hundreds of Netflix productions significantly. Complex shots and sequences, like battle scenes, are benefiting from this technology.
Netflix confirms it dropped more than half a billion dollars on Ben Affleck's "cost-cutting" AI tools
People talking up the supposed merits of artificial intelligence are usually pretty quick to get to the cost-cutting benefits of not actually having to pay human artists to make things; certainly, that was a tack Netflix took this week, when it used its latest earnings call to brag about all the cash it’s been saving by using generative AI on more than 300 projects to date. All of which makes it kind of wild to hear just how much the streamer ha…
Netflix revealed that it paid US$ 587 million (about R$ 3 billion) for InterPositive, an artificial intelligence company founded by Ben Affleck. The value of the acquisition was disclosed in a regulatory document presented by the company on Friday (17), months after the business was announced, according to the website The Hollywood Reporter. As part of the agreement, the actor, director and producer also became a senior streaming platform consul…
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