In a massive Q1 deal, the streamer disclosed an all-cash purchase of InterPositive, effectively acquiring exclusive rights to the actor's newfound passion for large language models.
Netflix has officially closed its all-cash acquisition of InterPositive, dropping $587 million to successfully absorb the artificial intelligence startup Ben Affleck founded after reportedly reading half of a Wired article in a dentist’s waiting room. The massive Q1 payout, revealed in an SEC Form 10-Q filing on Tuesday, grants the streamer complete ownership of the actor’s proprietary tech buzzwords and immediate access to a 12-page slide deck he built himself on an iPad.
The rollout of the acquisition comes after a frenzied bidding war among major studios, all desperate to appease the two-time Oscar winner’s sudden, aggressive pivot to Silicon Valley disruption. According to a source close to the production, the staggering valuation is based entirely on the strategic importance of keeping Affleck from cornering Amazon executives at Soho House to explain neural networks.
The deal, brokered over several heavily caffeinated lunches at the Polo Lounge, guarantees the actor will not attempt to write code himself. Instead, his production banner Artists Equity will receive a steady stream of backend stock options provided he agrees to keep his theories about generative algorithmic deep-learning strictly confined to Netflix’s Los Gatos campus.
In this town, you're not just buying a software platform. You're buying the exclusive right to nod quietly while a bankable star explains how large language models are going to revolutionize the mid-budget heist movie.
InterPositive’s current operating infrastructure reportedly consists of a subleased WeWork space in Santa Monica and three Stanford undergraduates who are contractually obligated to address Affleck as Chief Visionary Officer. The SEC filing notes that Netflix will immediately fold the startup's primary technical asset—a massive, disorganized spreadsheet of narrative arcs for The Accountant cinematic universe—directly into its existing user recommendation engine.
At press time, the actor's reps were already shopping a first-look deal for a $400 million quantum computing venture focused exclusively on optimizing Dunkin' drive-thru wait times in South Boston.