Meta has entered into a significant multi-year licensing agreement with media giant News Corp to utilize its vast library of content for AI training and product development. The contract is set to last at least three years, with Meta expected to pay up to $50 million (approximately 7.5 billion yen) annually. This partnership grants Meta access to content from globally influential publications such as The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the New York Post, and the UK's The Sun, covering everything from real-time news in the U.S. and UK to extensive historical archives.

The primary objective of this collaboration is to bolster the timeliness and reliability of Meta’s AI offerings. By incorporating the latest news into its systems, Meta aims to provide users with accurate, real-time insights into world events. Furthermore, utilizing high-quality datasets that have been meticulously written and edited by professional journalists to train a foundation model is expected to reduce hallucinations—where AI generates plausible but false information—while improving sophisticated contextual understanding. Robert Thomson (CEO of News Corp) has defined his firm as an "input company" for the AI era, underscoring that high-quality "words" and "information" are as essential to AI development as semiconductors or energy.

This deal highlights News Corp's strategic "collaboration and confrontation" approach. While the company is actively securing licensing deals with major tech players, it has simultaneously initiated copyright infringement lawsuits against AI search startups that scrape content without permission. This creates a clear distinction: while News Corp is willing to provide access to those paying a fair price, it remains firm against unauthorized exploitation. As the competition for generative AI dominance intensifies, the ability to consistently secure "clean, high-quality data" with cleared copyrights will likely become a decisive factor in the long-term competitiveness of technology companies.

Meta has entered into a significant multi-year licensing agreement with media giant News Corp to utilize its vast library of content for AI training and product development. The contract is set to last at least three years, with Meta expected to pay up to $50 million (approximately 7.5 billion yen) annually. This partnership grants Meta access to content from globally influential publications such as The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the New York Post, and the UK's The Sun, covering everything from real-time news in the U.S. and UK to extensive historical archives.

The primary objective of this collaboration is to bolster the timeliness and reliability of Meta’s AI offerings. By incorporating the latest news into its systems, Meta aims to provide users with accurate, real-time insights into world events. Furthermore, utilizing high-quality datasets that have been meticulously written and edited by professional journalists to train a foundation model is expected to reduce hallucinations—where AI generates plausible but false information—while improving sophisticated contextual understanding. Robert Thomson (CEO of News Corp) has defined his firm as an "input company" for the AI era, underscoring that high-quality "words" and "information" are as essential to AI development as semiconductors or energy.

This deal highlights News Corp's strategic "collaboration and confrontation" approach. While the company is actively securing licensing deals with major tech players, it has simultaneously initiated copyright infringement lawsuits against AI search startups that scrape content without permission. This creates a clear distinction: while News Corp is willing to provide access to those paying a fair price, it remains firm against unauthorized exploitation. As the competition for generative AI dominance intensifies, the ability to consistently secure "clean, high-quality data" with cleared copyrights will likely become a decisive factor in the long-term competitiveness of technology companies.