Meta in Talks with Axel Springer, Fox, and Others on AI News Licensing: WSJ

Meta Platforms (META.O) has been in discussions with media companies including Axel Springer, Fox Corp (FOXA.O), and News Corp (NWSA.O) about licensing news content for integration into its AI products, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the report said the talks focus on licensing news and other content for Meta’s AI tools. However, some of the negotiations are still at an early stage and may not result in agreements.

A spokesperson for Axel Springer declined to comment, while Meta, News Corp, and Fox did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

Meta is currently restructuring its AI efforts under its Superintelligence Labs unit—a high-stakes initiative that comes amid senior staff departures and lukewarm feedback on its latest open-source LLaMA 4 model.

Other companies, including ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and Jeff Bezos–backed startup Perplexity, have already forged similar AI partnerships with news organizations.

Reuters itself signed a content licensing deal with Meta Platforms in 2024. In May, Amazon entered into a partnership with The New York Times to allow the use of its editorial content in AI products such as Alexa.