Disney has been a wannabe tech company for the longest of times. They started the streaming Wars with Disney+ and have had massive spend on AI already. There is virtually no creative or artistic talent left in the company.

Disney isn't "paying someone," they're expecting to make money. They're investing.

The $1B turns into OpenAI stock. If Disney characters make OpenAI more valuable, that stock and its future dividends become more valuable.

The alternative is they make no money and people still produce them using other video gen tools without the copyright filters.

Similar to the music industry piracy battle, it makes more sense to work with the big platforms than fight them.

Are they losing control though? OpenAI did sign a contract with them and that presumably gives them some power. Maybe less than the power they had over, for example netflix, but still more than nothing.

P.S. If you can't win them, join them ...

Disney monetizing the loss of control that was happening anyway

I think they're getting some equity in return for the investment. If it goes up, Disney makes out. If it doesn't, well, ...