After A Year Of Layoffs, Disney Finds $180 Million For Recruits From Bankrupt Character.AI

Disney has spent much of 2026 cutting jobs and announcing restrictions on employee benefits, with the reductions continuing under new CEO Josh D’Amaro. Now, it plans to spend roughly $180 million over three years to compensate and retain 66 recruits from the recently bankrupt, highly controversial chatbot startup Character.AI.

According to Business Insider, citing bankruptcy filings, the hiring follows September layoffs that included technology workers. The recruits are following former Character.AI CEO Karandeep Anand, whom Disney recently appointed its first company-wide chief technology officer. The group crossing over constitutes most of Character.AI’s approximately 86-person workforce at September’s end.

As we reported last week, Character.AI filed for Chapter 11 protection on October 12, ten days after Anand officially joined Disney. Disney separately offered $20 million for a non-exclusive, perpetual license to certain intellectual property and certain company claims, subject to the bankruptcy sale process.

The spending adds another revealing chapter to Disney’s year of restructuring and continued efforts to get ahead in the AI race. The company eliminated jobs in January, approximately 1,000 more in April, and 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 considered automation, outside providers, and outsourcing. Beginning in 2027, Disney will also restrict spousal health coverage when spouses can obtain insurance through their own employers, even if those plans offer worse benefits.

These decisions come alongside substantial profits and shareholder payouts. Disney reported $5.6 billion in fiscal third-quarter segment operating income, up 21%, and raised its fiscal-year share-buyback target to at least $9 billion.

Big picture, the layoffs, benefit restrictions, buybacks, and AI hiring reveal consistent spending priorities. Disney is willing to commit substantial sums to AI expertise (remember its proposed $1 billion investment in OpenAI, announced alongside a Sora licensing deal that collapsed just over three months later, before any money changed hands?) and shareholder returns, while asking its existing workforce to absorb repeated cuts.