Disney to spend about $180 million to retain 66 Character.AI hires

Disney plans to spend about $180 million over three years on compensation and retention for 66 former Character.AI employees, according to Business Insider, citing bankruptcy filings. The 66 recruits represent most of the chatbot startup's roughly 86-person workforce at the end of September.

Disney separately offered $20 million for a non-exclusive, perpetual license to certain Character.AI intellectual property and certain company claims, subject to the bankruptcy sale process.

The hires follow the appointment of Karandeep Anand, a former Character.AI chief executive, as Disney's first company-wide chief technology officer. Character.AI filed for Chapter 11 protection on October 12, ten days after Anand officially joined Disney.

The spending comes in a year when Disney has been cutting costs. The company eliminated jobs in January and about 1,000 more in April, then hundreds in July, including roughly 150 at Pixar. In September, Disney's top lawyer warned employees that his department would shrink substantially as the company weighed automation, outside providers and outsourcing.

Disney also spent much of 2026 announcing restrictions on employee benefits, and from 2027 it will limit spousal health coverage when spouses can obtain insurance through their own employers. The company proposed a $1 billion investment in OpenAI alongside a Sora licensing deal, which collapsed just over three months later before any money changed hands.