Want smarter insights in your inbox? Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get only what matters to enterprise AI, data, and security leaders.<\/em> Subscribe Now<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Even three years after its debut, with ever increasing competition in the AI image and video generation space<\/strong>, Midjourney<\/strong>, the bootstrapped San Francisco startup, remains the \u201cgold standard\u201d for its 20 million users \u2014 including us here at VentureBeat, where we use it to generate the \u201cheader\u201d art to many of our articles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Apparently, the leaders of Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta feel similarly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, Alexandr Wang, the former Scale AI founder and CEO who has become Meta\u2019s Chief AI Officer<\/strong> and head of the company\u2019s newly formed Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), announced a partnership with Midjourney \u2014 believed to be the first of its kind for the independent AI image startup. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Meta will \u201clicense their aesthetic technology for our future models and products, bringing beauty to billions,\u201d Wang wrote on X, a rival social network to Meta\u2019s own Threads and Facebook. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Power caps, rising token costs, and inference delays are reshaping enterprise AI. Join our exclusive salon to discover how top teams are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Secure your spot to stay ahead<\/strong>: https:\/\/bit.ly\/4mwGngO<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1\/ Today we\u2019re proud to announce a partnership with @midjourney<\/a>, to license their aesthetic technology for our future models and products, bringing beauty to billions.<\/p>\u2014 Alexandr Wang (@alexandr_wang) August 22, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Midjourney had previously reportedly been in discussions with Elon Musk and xAI for some integration with the latter company\u2019s Grok image generation capabilities, but xAI debuted Grok image generation powered by startup Black Forest Labs\u2019 Flux AI image model initially, and now appears to have native image generation capabilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Two months ago, Midjourney added a capability to turn images created on the site or uploaded by a user into artistic and captivating videos <\/strong>that has also impressed many users, surpassing their expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Wang framed the move as part of a bigger philosophy \u2014 Meta\u2019s \u201call-of-the-above\u201d approach to building advanced AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That means recruiting top research talent, pouring billions into computing infrastructure, and, in this case, teaming up with a company whose work complements Meta\u2019s in ways it can\u2019t easily build on its own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Midjourney, Wang said, has achieved \u201ctrue feats of technical and aesthetic excellence,\u201d and Meta is eager to put that expertise to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Midjourney, the partnership is an opportunity to see its technology woven into one of the largest digital ecosystems on the planet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But in his own X post, Midjourney founder David Holz was quick to stress what isn\u2019t changing: the lab\u2019s independence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He reminded followers that Midjourney remains community-backed, has no outside investors, and is still pursuing an ambitious slate of projects <\/strong>aimed at shaping what he calls more \u201chumane futures.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bringing sublime tools of creation and beauty to billions of people is squarely within our mission. Excited to partner with the titans of industry to make this happen. https:\/\/t.co\/LJqcrDtGSz<\/p>\u2014 David (@DavidSHolz) August 22, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n We remain an independent, community-backed research lab, with no investors, working on a staggering array of ambitious projects focused on bringing about humane futures where we are all mid-journey. Join us!<\/p>\u2014 David (@DavidSHolz) August 22, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n On paper, the tie-up makes sense. Meta brings scale, distribution, and staggering compute power. Midjourney brings a creative edge, honed through years of training models to generate imagery that resonates with actual human tastes. It\u2019s a marriage of brute force and design flair, an alliance that could help Meta\u2019s AI systems feel less utilitarian and more inspired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But for now, the details are hazy. Neither company has said how much the deal is worth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s been no statements as to when Midjourney\u2019s technology will start showing up in Meta\u2019s products, or to what degree it will be baked into the company\u2019s AI strategy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Is this about upgrading the polish of Meta\u2019s widely mocked and recently criticized chatbots<\/strong> \u2014 one of which a user allegedly mistook for a real person and died traveling to visit? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Will it be used to enhance Meta\u2019s virtual reality worlds? Or supercharge creative tools across Instagram and Facebook? The answers remain vague for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Similarly, a big question concerns what will happen with Midjourney\u2019s stated plans to pursue an external application programming interface (API)<\/strong> for other enterprises to build products and services atop of its powerful image generation models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last month, the official Midjourney account on X posted that it was \u201cstarting to investigate opening up an Enterprise API for people to start integrating Midjourney into their companies\/services,\u201d and provided an Enterprise API application questionnaire for interested parties to fill out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We’re starting to investigate opening up an Enterprise API for people to start integrating Midjourney into their companies\/services. If you’d like to apply, help us figure out what to provide, or just want follow-up updates please fill out our Enterprise API application below ?<\/p>\u2014 Midjourney (@midjourney) July 16, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n That application remains online for now, but with Meta inking a deal with Midjourney, the question becomes whether or not is exclusive and will stop plans for a separate Midjourney API<\/strong> in its tracks. I messaged founder Holz and have asked about the API and will update upon receiving a response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n The announcement lands against the backdrop of Meta\u2019s massive internal shake-up. In August, the company reorganized its AI operations, creating Meta Superintelligence Labs, with Wang \u2014 who joined after Meta\u2019s $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI \u2014 at the helm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The reorg split AI work into four core tracks: research, training, product, and infrastructure, as Business Insider<\/em> reported initially. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Wang now oversees an elite bench of talent recruited from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and beyond \u2014 recruited for eye-watering pay packages in the multi-hundred million dollar range \u2014 now tasked with pushing Meta toward its stated goal: personalized artificial superintelligence for each user.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s an ambitious mission, and a controversial one. Some researchers inside Meta are reportedly uneasy about the pace and scope of the changes. Others see Wang\u2019s rapid consolidation of power as both necessary and risky. What\u2019s clear is that Meta is betting heavily on AI as its future, and the Midjourney deal is one more sign of just how expansive that bet has become.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Midjourney, aligning with Meta carries its own risks. Independence is central to its identity, and some in its community may worry that partnering with a tech giant could dilute that ethos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Holz\u2019s messaging suggests he knows this, which may explain why he emphasized Midjourney\u2019s continued autonomy in the same breath as announcing the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What happens next will depend on how the partnership translates from announcement to execution.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For now, the only certainty is that the ever-changing AI product landscape just took another big twist \u2014 and we\u2019re all along for the ride. <\/p>\n Daily insights on business use cases with VB Daily<\/strong><\/p>\n If you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to practical deployments, so you can share insights for maximum ROI.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\tThanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n An error occured.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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\n<\/div>Details are lacking: how much $$$ is Midjourney getting from the partnership?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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