(Bloomberg) — Netflix Inc. will pay as much as $600 million for InterPositive, the AI moviemaking company founded by Ben Affleck, according to people familiar with the matter, making the purchase one of the biggest ever by the streaming leader.
The actual price, paid in cash, was less, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the terms are private. InterPositive’s owners will earn even more if it meets certain performance targets. Netflix, which recently bid unsuccessfully for Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., hasn’t disclosed the terms.
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Netflix is buying InterPositive to accelerate the use of artificial intelligence in its filmmaking. The startup has developed a suite of tools that allow filmmakers to alter existing footage. David Fincher has already used the products on an upcoming film starring Brad Pitt.
The acquisition is also one of the largest AI deals by a major Hollywood studio. Companies such as Netflix and Amazon.com Inc. are increasingly experimenting with AI technology to cut production costs and improve the quality of their work. Amazon has created an in-house team to deploy AI across its film and TV work, while Walt Disney Co. struck a commercial partnership with OpenAI.
Hollywood workers worry that studios will use AI to eliminate jobs and cut costs. They are also concerned that tech companies will steal their work and use it to train AI technology without compensating them.
Affleck has built InterPositive as a tool for filmmakers: A director needs to shoot a movie before the software can train using the footage. Only then can it help remove stray items or adjust the background in a scene. It doesn’t train on films without permission or generate new projects without the base film.
Until its $72 billion Warner Bros. pursuit, Netflix had largely stayed away from costly merger deals, saying it preferred to build rather than buy. The purchase of a startup — even one of the biggest AI deals ever in Hollywood — could be viewed as being in the former category, a step by Netflix toward building its own AI capabilities.
“The filmmaking process really since it’s inception has been one long technological progression,” Affleck said in a video posted by Netflix. “We’ve always been seeking to make it feel more realistic, more honest, and InterPositive I hope is another iteration or step in keeping with that long and storied history.”