Netflix has bought an artificial-intelligence filmmaking startup co-founded by actor and director Ben Affleck, the company revealed.
According to TechCrunch, Netflix paid $587 million in cash for the startup, which is called InterPositive. The reporting does not detail the startup's specific technology or products beyond describing it as an AI filmmaking company, nor how Netflix intends to fold it into its business.
The deal is notable on a few fronts. The price tag is substantial for a startup, and the all-cash structure signals that Netflix wanted the acquisition done cleanly rather than tying the sellers to Netflix stock. The involvement of Ben Affleck also gives the transaction unusual visibility: a high-profile Hollywood figure is not just endorsing AI tools for filmmaking but building a company around them and selling it to one of the world's largest streaming platforms.
For readers watching the entertainment industry, the acquisition is a concrete data point in an ongoing and often tense debate about how generative AI will reshape how movies and shows get made. AI in filmmaking has been a flashpoint, drawing concern from writers, actors and other creative professionals worried about how the technology affects jobs and creative control.
A purchase of this size by Netflix suggests the company sees AI filmmaking tools as strategically important rather than experimental. It also shows that talent from within Hollywood itself is helping to build the technology, complicating the simple framing of AI as something imposed on the industry from the outside.
Why it matters: Netflix spending $587 million on an AI filmmaking startup is a clear sign that major studios view AI as central to the future of how film and television get produced.