Disney agreed to pay $60 million to 66 employees from an AI startup that filed for bankruptcy, weeks after tech layoffs

Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro plans to hire employees from Character.AI, where new tech chief Karandeep Anand worked.

Taylor Hill/FilmMagic; Manaure Quintero / AFP via Getty Images Disney plans to pay $60 million to hire 66 employees from Character.AI, which filed for bankruptcy.

Former Character.AI Karandeep Anand is Disney's new chief technology officer.

CEO Josh D'Amaro's company laid off tech staffers in September in its third round of cuts this year.

Disney is paying up for employees from an AI chatbot startup that filed for bankruptcy, shortly after trimming its own tech workforce.

The Mouse House plans to pay $60 million per year to 66 workers from Character.AI, according to a Chapter 11 filing on Tuesday from its parent company.

In mid-September, Disney hired Character.AI CEO Karandeep Anand to be its first-ever company-wide tech chief . (The company hasn't yet disclosed how much it's paying Anand.) These additions are part of Disney's AI strategy under CEO Josh D'Amaro , who's been investing in the media giant's tech platforms to help jumpstart a stagnant stock that's up less than 2% in the last 12 months and is down over 36% in the last five years.

Disney's decision to bring in these Character.AI staffers came two weeks after it laid off several hundred workers — including some tech employees.

The late-September cuts were Disney's third major round of layoffs since D'Amaro took over in mid-March.

In addition to the $60 million in compensation, Disney is setting aside an additional $30 million for an "aggregate retention pool" to incentivize Character.AI employees to stay.

The company expects to spend $180 million on "total compensation and retention" for these staffers in the next three years, the filing said.

Of the 66 Character.AI staffers who were offered jobs by Disney, 56 have already resigned from the AI startup, while the other 10 are waiting for the US government to update their work visas.

Entertainment lawyer Corey Martin of Granderson Des Rochers, who advises companies on media transactions, said he's not surprised by those pay figures since Character.AI's employees are its biggest asset.

"They're highly compensated employees.