Netflix Paid $587 Million for Ben Affleck’s AI Company InterPositive

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Jul 19

Netflix has revealed it spent nearly $600 million to acquire Ben Affleck’s AI startup InterPositive, marking one of Hollywood’s biggest investments yet in filmmaker-focused artificial intelligence.

Netflix has officially revealed how much it paid to acquire Ben Affleck’s artificial intelligence company, InterPositive.

In a newly filed quarterly Form 10-Q with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the streaming giant disclosed that it spent approximately $587 million in cash to acquire the filmmaker-focused startup earlier this year.

While Netflix’s filing does not identify InterPositive by name, the timing corresponds with the company’s March announcement confirming the acquisition.

The purchase answers one of the biggest outstanding questions surrounding the deal. When Netflix announced it had acquired Affleck’s AI company, the financial terms were left undisclosed, fueling widespread speculation about how much value the streamer placed on filmmaker-focused artificial intelligence.

Affleck launched InterPositive in 2022 with a mission that distinguished it from many AI startups entering Hollywood. Rather than replacing writers, directors or actors, the company developed tools designed to solve technical filmmaking challenges, including continuity corrections, background replacements, missing shots and lighting inconsistencies during post-production.

“I knew I had a responsibility to my peers and our industry to protect the power of human creativity and the people behind it,”

Affleck said when the acquisition was announced earlier this year.

According to Affleck, InterPositive trained its models using a proprietary dataset captured on a closed soundstage, allowing its technology to understand visual logic and editorial consistency while preserving established cinematic language.

The filing also follows Netflix’s latest earnings call, where Co-CEO Ted Sarandos revealed just how quickly generative AI has become part of the company’s production workflow.

Sarandos said roughly 300 productions have already incorporated generative AI, with the largest concentration occurring during post-production.

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He pointed to the Tom Hanks-backed documentary The American Experiment, which used approximately 17 minutes of AI-enhanced footage. According to Netflix, those sequences were completed in roughly half the time and at half the cost of previous production methods.

The disclosure reinforces what has become increasingly apparent across Hollywood over the past year. Netflix isn’t simply experimenting with artificial intelligence—it’s making long-term investments in technology it believes can fundamentally reshape how film and television are made while keeping filmmakers at the center of the creative process.