Google Invests $75M in A24 Without Accessing Its Film Library

Published by James Harris on June 22, 2026June 22, 2026

Google is spending roughly $75 million to take a minority stake in A24, the independent studio behind recent releases including “Backrooms” and “Marty Supreme,” with the explicit goal of building AI tools for filmmaking alongside DeepMind. This is the first time Alphabet has taken an ownership stake in a film studio, which makes it a structurally different move from simply licensing content or running ads against it.

The deal arrives at an awkward moment for Hollywood’s relationship with AI. Most studios have kept their distance from AI developers since the copyright disputes began, and the Disney-OpenAI pairing that seemed to signal a thaw fell apart in March when OpenAI shut down its Sora video tool. That collapse matters here because it set a precedent: high-profile studio-AI partnerships can unravel quickly when the underlying technology or business case shifts. Google and A24 appear to have designed around that risk deliberately. The agreement is non-exclusive, runs for several years, and grants Google no access to A24’s film and television library, which removes the copyright exposure that has made other studios hesitant.

The no-library-access clause is the most consequential detail in the deal, and it will be the first thing other studios read when they evaluate whether to follow.

A24 Labs, a 20-person internal unit, is already building a storyboarding application using AI, and the studio’s technology lead Scott Belsky has been explicit that the tools will not resemble “prompted generation type of AI.” That framing is doing real work: it positions the collaboration as a creative instrument rather than a cost-cutting mechanism, which is the pitch that has consistently failed with directors and writers. Kane Parsons, who directed “Backrooms” for A24, said in a separate interview that he would erase generative AI entirely if he could, describing it as “a symptom of a broader cultural and economic rot” rather than innovation. Having a prominent collaborator publicly hold that view while the ink dries on a DeepMind partnership is an unusual dynamic, and it reflects how genuinely unsettled the industry remains. The quantum-era risks that threaten legacy digital infrastructure share a structural similarity here: the technology outpaces institutional readiness, and the gap between capability and trust is where most of the friction lives.

A24’s last funding round in 2024, led by Thrive Capital, valued the studio at $3.5 billion. Google’s $75 million check is described as roughly comparable in size to what Thrive contributed then, which means Google is buying a small slice at a valuation that has presumably held or risen since. For DeepMind, the value is not financial return on a minority stake but access to working filmmakers and a credible creative brand, the two things that make AI tools in this sector either adopted or ignored.