MiniMax loses bid to dismiss Disney copyright lawsuit over AI system

A federal judge ruled that Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. have plausible claims that MiniMax used their copyrighted characters to train its Hailuo AI video generator.

by Editorial Team

Tue 26 May 2026 · 17:43 EDT 2 min read

In Regulation

The Walt Disney Company (DIS) price

Full chart and stats

Loading chart…

Last close: $110
Close-to-close change: −0.2%
Market cap: $190.3B (shares as of 2026-07-29)
P/E (trailing): 22.7 (EPS to 2026-06-27)
Annual revenue: $94.4B USD (FY ended 2025-09-27) 10-K
Annual revenue growth: +3.4% (FY ended 2025-09-27 vs FY ended 2024-09-28) 10-K
Annual net income: 12,404,000,000 USD (FY ended 2025-09-27, attributable to the company) 10-K
Annual operating margin: 18.6% (FY ended 2025-09-27)
Forward P/E: Unavailable: no dated forecast source

Gloria daily close for session Oct 27, 2026. Market cap and trailing P/E use this close with the SEC share total and trailing diluted earnings, each dated next to its figure. Annual revenue, revenue growth, net income and margin show their own fiscal period and link the 10-K. Current context may postdate this article.

The Walt Disney Company and its peers

Company	Price	Market cap	P/E (trailing)	Forward P/E	Annual revenue (USD)	Annual revenue growth	Annual net income (USD)	Operating margin
The Walt Disney Company DIS · Price dated Oct 27, 2026	$110	$190.3B	22.7	Unavailable	$94.4BFY ended 2025-09-27 · 10-K	+3.4%FY ended 2025-09-27 vs 2024-09-28 · 10-K	12,404,000,000FY ended 2025-09-27, attributable to the company · 10-K	18.6%FY ended 2025-09-27
DraftKings Inc. DKNG · Price dated Oct 27, 2026	$21	Unavailable	Not meaningfulLoss, diluted EPS −0.33 to 2026-06-30 · SEC filing	Unavailable	$6.1BFY ended 2025-12-31 · 10-K	+27.0%FY ended 2025-12-31 vs 2024-12-31 · 10-K	3,710,000FY ended 2025-12-31, attributable to the company · 10-K	−0.3%FY ended 2025-12-31
Powerus PUSA · Price dated Oct 27, 2026	$1.91	$51.5M	Not meaningfulLoss, diluted EPS −0.30 to 2026-06-30 · SEC filing	Unavailable	$3.0MFY ended 2025-12-31 · 10-K	−10.1%FY ended 2025-12-31 vs 2024-12-31 · 10-K	−3,677,030FY ended 2025-12-31, attributable to the company · 10-K	−148.6%FY ended 2025-12-31

Missing figures stay unavailable. Forward P/E requires a dated source. Annual revenue, revenue growth, net income and margin come from each company's own 10-K, in US dollars, and each row shows that fiscal year. Revenue growth compares the fiscal year with the prior year stated in the same 10-K. Net income is the full year amount attributable to the company, or available to common stockholders where the filing states only that, or consolidated net income. Each row names its basis. Trailing P/E reads "Not meaningful" when the dated trailing diluted EPS is a loss or zero. An operating margin appears only when the filing states both the operating income and the revenue for the same year.

Sources: SEC filings and Gloria daily closes. Oldest record refresh: Oct 27, 2026, 7:26 PM EDT. Refresh is not a price or filing date. Each row shows its price date and its annual fiscal period. Peers use industry code and company size, or editorial selection. Market cap multiplies that row price by the company share total the latest SEC filing states for every share class together. Trailing P/E divides it by trailing diluted earnings from SEC filings. Rolled earnings per share are approximate because share counts can change between periods. Both appear only when the SEC data carries its date, so they are estimates at one price date, not synchronized filing valuations. Not investment advice.

A US federal court has rejected Chinese AI company MiniMax’s attempt to toss out a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by some of Hollywood’s biggest studios. The ruling keeps alive claims that MiniMax scraped protected content, including Marvel and Star Wars characters, to train its Hailuo AI image and video generation system.

Judge Stanley Blumenfeld, sitting in the US District Court for the Central District of California, denied MiniMax’s motion to dismiss on May 23, finding that the studios’ claims are plausible at the pleading stage. The case, filed by Walt Disney Company, Comcast’s Universal, and Warner Bros. Discovery, is now set to proceed into discovery.

What the studios are alleging

The lawsuit was originally filed on September 16, 2025, by Disney Enterprises and 11 affiliated plaintiffs against MiniMax, SXJT, and Nanonoble. The complaint alleges both direct and secondary copyright infringement, and the studios are seeking damages along with injunctive relief.

The core accusation is that MiniMax allegedly used copyrighted works owned by these studios to train its Hailuo AI system without authorization. MiniMax reportedly marketed Hailuo with the slogan “Hollywood studio in your pocket,” featuring characters owned by the plaintiffs.

Earlier delays stemmed from difficulties serving foreign defendants via the Hague Convention. MiniMax also attempted to get the case thrown out in December 2025, but that effort went nowhere. The judge’s May 23 ruling pushes the litigation into its next phase.

What this means for investors

MiniMax is a well-funded Chinese AI startup. The prospect of damages and injunctive relief, meaning a court could potentially order changes to how Hailuo operates, introduces real uncertainty into its business model.

For the entertainment industry, the case reinforces the leverage that major IP holders have in negotiations with AI companies. Disney alone controls franchises worth tens of billions of dollars. Investors in generative AI startups should be asking pointed questions about training data provenance, because the courts increasingly are.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Menu

Crypto sections