Meta signs a multimillion dollar AI licensing deal with News Corp
Meta has signed an AI licensing agreement with News Corp that will allow the creator of Meta AI to use content from The Wall Street Journal and other brands in its chatbot responses and for training its AI models. News Corp confirmed to Engadget that it has reached an agreement with Meta, but did not provide details on the terms of the agreement. According to the Wall Street Journal, Meta will pay News Corp. “up to $50 million per year” for a three-year deal covering the content of The Review, as well as the media giant’s other brands in the US and UK.
News Corp previously agreed to a five-year deal with OpenAI, valued at around $250 million. During a recent appearance at Morgan Stanley’s annual Technology, Media & Telecom (TMT) conference, News Corp CEO Robert Thomson suggested the media company was at an “advanced stage in further negotiations.”
He described the company’s overall approach to such arrangements as a “broker and sue” strategy, depending on whether companies want to pay for content or remove it without permission. “We have what you might call a broker and chase strategy,” he said. “We will court you. We would like you to be our partner. But if you steal our stuff, we will sue you. So there will be a discount for those who surrender, and there will be a penalty for those who resist.”
A Meta spokesperson confirmed that the two companies had reached an agreement. The company, which has been reorganizing its AI teams in preparation for its next model, has entered into a number of licensing deals in recent months. It has already signed multi-year agreements with The United States today, People, CNN, Fox News and other outlets. The company said at the time that “by integrating more and different types of news sources, our goal is to improve Meta AI’s ability to deliver timely and relevant content and information with a wide variety of viewpoints and content types.”
Updated, March 3, 2026, 4:18 p.m. PT: This story has been updated with additional information from a Meta spokesperson.
