The Walt Disney Company

Money Moves

Reporting Q2 FY26 results; restructuring around streaming

For 28 years ESPN was Disney's cable cash machine — a pay-TV channel that millions paid for whether they watched it or not. Disney's May 6 earnings report described something different: a standalone $29.99-a-month streaming service, an asset valued at $30 billion, and a sports network in which the National Football League now owns 10%.

Updated 3 hours ago

Money Moves

Accepted Sora shutdown; $1B equity investment never closed; character licensing ended April 26; in talks with OpenAI for future collaboration

OpenAI previewed Sora as a glimpse of cinema's AI future in February 2024. Twenty-six months later, on April 26, 2026, the company switched off the Sora consumer app for good. The underlying programming interface (the API that lets other developers tap the model) keeps running until September 24, but the standalone product, the iOS social feed, and the Disney character partnership all end now. When Sam Altman personally called new Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro to break the news, he said he felt 'terrible' — and D'Amaro replied, 'I get it.'

Updated Apr 27

Rule Changes

Faced backlash and lawsuit over 2015 H-1B layoffs

On December 29, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security formally published its final rule replacing the H-1B lottery with wage-weighted selection in the Federal Register. Starting February 27, 2026, a software engineer offered $150,000 (Level IV wage) gets four entries in the pool; one offered $65,000 (Level I) gets one entry—an 8.5% selection chance versus the prior 25% random odds. The change targets fraud: 758,994 registrations competed for 85,000 slots in FY 2024, with 408,891 duplicate submissions for the same people, up 140% from the year before. Shell companies flooded the system; Disney laid off American IT staff and made them train H-1B replacements paid 40% less. On December 24, a federal judge upheld the separate $100,000 H-1B fee Trump imposed in September, rejecting a U.S. Chamber of Commerce lawsuit.

Updated Dec 29, 2025

Money Moves

First major studio to both sue AI firms for infringement and license characters to a leading AI platform.

Mickey Mouse just shook hands with the algorithm Hollywood spent two years trying to tame. Disney is investing $1 billion in OpenAI and letting Sora and ChatGPT Images legally pump out short videos and images starring more than 200 Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars characters — but not the actors who play them.

Updated Dec 11, 2025