Disney offers jobs to most of Character.AI’s workforce

Disney agreed to offer jobs to at least 60 Character.AI employees, a majority of the chatbot startup’s workforce, following its bankruptcy filing. The vast majority of employees who received offers accepted them, according to a filing described by TechCrunch and The AI Insider.

The employment offers carried an estimated $60 million in annual compensation. That figure concerns the proposed employment packages, not the price Disney agreed to pay for some of Character.AI’s assets.

Character.AI had previously said Disney agreed to acquire those assets for $20 million. The proposed purchase is subject to a stalking-horse bidding process, which allows another company to submit a higher offer. Disney’s agreement therefore does not establish that it will ultimately acquire the assets.

Karandeep Anand, Character.AI’s former chief executive, became Disney’s first chief technology officer. His appointment puts the startup’s former leader in a technology leadership role at the company also offering jobs to much of its staff.

The reports, published October 18 and 19, 2026, said Character.AI had filed for bankruptcy earlier that week. They describe two distinct parts of the arrangement: employment offers covering most of the workforce and a proposed purchase of selected assets. Neither should be read as a completed acquisition of Character.AI as a whole.

For employees, the filing provides evidence of substantial acceptance of Disney’s offers, although the reported figures do not give an exact count of acceptances. For the asset transaction, the next unresolved issue is whether another bidder offers more than Disney’s $20 million proposal.