Google invested $75 million (about 115.3 billion won) in A24, the U.S. independent film studio behind the hits "Minari" and "Backrooms," and formed an artificial intelligence (AI) research partnership. This is the first time Google has acquired equity in a film studio.
On the 22nd (local time), the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that the DeepMind AI institutional sector of Alphabet, Google's parent company, and A24 signed a multiyear, nonexclusive partnership. The two sides aim to develop new AI tools for film production and distribution. Under the deal, Google cannot access data such as A24's film and TV library. Instead, artists affiliated with A24 are expected to work with DeepMind to incorporate AI into the creative process.
A24 is a New York-based independent film company founded in 2012. After the film "Everything Everywhere All at Once," which won the best picture Oscar in 2022, the company recently scored back-to-back hits with the horror movie "Backrooms" and "Marty Supreme," starring Timothée Chalamet, establishing itself as one of the few studios that can draw audiences to theaters on name alone. It also handled distribution for "Minari," for which actor Youn Yuh-jung won the supporting actress Oscar.
In a 2024 funding round, it was valued at $3.5 billion (about 5.3795 trillion won), and revenue doubled over the past two years.
Scott Belsky, a partner at A24 overseeing technology and innovation, said, "Developers have promoted AI as a way to make movies faster and cheaper, but that doesn't appeal to filmmakers," and noted, "There are better uses that preserve creative control and support risk-taking."
Meanwhile, despite Google's AI investment push, Alphabet shares on the New York stock market at one point plunged 7.2% intraday, the steepest drop in a year, before closing down 5.08% at $348.78. A string of departures by core AI researchers was the direct cause.
On the 18th, Noam Shazeer, vice president of engineering and a co-developer of Google's Gemini AI model, said he would move to rival OpenAI. On the 19th, John Jumper, DeepMind vice president and engineering fellow, announced he would leave for Anthropic after nine years. Jumper is a co-developer of AlphaFold, an AI for protein structure prediction, and a 2024 Nobel Prize in chemistry laureate.