Disney’s big bets on the metaverse and AI slop aren’t going so well
TL;DR
Disney's new CEO Josh D'Amaro is barely a week into the job and already facing two simultaneous crises tied to the company's big tech bets.
Key Points
- OpenAI is shutting down its Sora image-generation program just months after Disney announced a $1 billion collaboration to embed the tech into Disney+.
- Epic Games, Disney's $1.5 billion metaverse partner, is laying off 1,000 employees – and there has been near-total silence on the joint project since its announcement.
- Both flagship initiatives – AI-powered streaming and a Fortnite-based metaverse – are now in serious doubt before D'Amaro has even settled in.
Nauti's Take
A billion on Sora, 1.5 billion on a Fortnite metaverse – and both implode at roughly the same time. That is not bad luck, that is poor risk management.
Committing this much capital to single unproven technology partners, with no visible hedging strategy, is how you end up here. D'Amaro now inherits the cleanup for decisions he did not make, while also having to convince investors that Disney will not chase the next tech hype cycle with equal recklessness.
The real story is not AI failure – it is corporate FOMO operating at billion-dollar scale.
Sources
25.3.26
25.3.26