Netflix paid $587 million in cash to acquire Ben Affleck’s AI startup InterPositive, the company disclosed in a federal filing.
As part of the company’s Form 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Netflix confirmed that it “completed the acquisition in March for a total purchase price of approximately $587 million.” The disclosure comes months after a Bloomberg report indicated that Netflix’s March acquisition could be worth up to $600 million for Affleck and Interpositive investors, even if the company’s total value was less than that amount.
The rest will be made up through “specific performance targets,” Bloomberg reported. Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Netflix acquired the startup Affleck founded in 2022 and operated in stealth mode to develop AI tools that “put filmmakers at the center of the process.” The acquisition adds to InterPositive’s 16-person team of engineers, researchers and creators, and Affleck joins Netflix as a senior advisor. The company’s tools allow filmmakers to use production diaries to build AI models to enhance post-production tasks such as mixing, relighting shots, and adding visual effects, eliminating common visual production tasks.
“From the invention of video to the transition to digital, from motion capture to virtual production, technology has evolved along with the artists who use it,” Affleck said when announcing the merger. “Our shared commitment to continuing this tradition, coupled with Netflix’s decades of experience responsibly applying and extending technology, makes working together a natural next step.”
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos highlighted the company’s integration of generative AI tools and work with Interpositive during Thursday’s second-quarter earnings call, revealing that about 300 of the company’s titles this year use some form of generative AI. Sarandos said the deal with Interpositive is still in its “early days,” but Netflix is making sure it impacts production, as well as other internal tools.
Still, while he highlighted in the documentary series The American Experiment that AI can be used to generate sequences “twice as fast and at half the cost of previous options,” he said the company is not keen on replacing human-made work with generation technology.
“We believe it takes great artists to create great things, and AI won’t change that,” Sarandos said. “Movies are made by the people who make them, and AI gives them better tools to make them even better.”
