Robert Thomson said on the Q3 FY2026 earnings call that News Corp anticipates a $1.5 billion settlement with Anthropic. The figure is not yet closed; Thomson used the word 'anticipated' and the negotiation is still live.Source: Lowdown briefing 2026-05-10 / News Corp Q3 FY2026 earnings call

What does News Corp own?

News Corp's main assets are Dow Jones (Wall Street Journal, Barron's, MarketWatch), News UK (The Times, The Sun), HarperCollins publishing, and REA Group real estate portals, alongside global Australian and US newspaper networks.Source: News Corp investor relations

Why did News Corp's Anthropic deal get so much attention?

Because Thomson named a specific figure — $1.5bn — in a public earnings call, making it the first time a major publisher had put a dollar amount on an AI licensing arrangement at this scale in an SEC-filed document. It reset the benchmark for all subsequent publisher negotiations.Source: Lowdown briefing 2026-05-10

Background

News Corp is the global media and information services company that in May 2026 named the most specific dollar figure yet to emerge from the AI publisher-licensing market: an anticipated $1.5 billion settlement with Anthropic, disclosed by chief executive Robert Thomson on the Q3 FY2026 earnings call on 8 May 2026. The figure is roughly six times News Corp's previously reported five-year OpenAI deal of approximately $250 million, and its appearance in an SEC-filed earnings transcript has reset the benchmark against which every other publisher now negotiates. Thomson described the figure as "anticipated", reflecting a negotiation still in progress rather than a closed agreement, alongside disclosing live discussions with other unnamed companies.

Founded as a separate entity from the Murdoch entertainment assets in 2013, News Corp houses Dow Jones (Wall Street Journal, Barron's, MarketWatch), News UK (The Times, The Sun), HarperCollins, REA Group and a global network of Australian and US newspapers. Q3 FY2026 revenue reached $2.19 billion (+9% year-on-year) with EBITDA at $343 million (+18%). The Anthropic negotiation follows named licensing deals with Meta and OpenAI, making News Corp one of the few publishers with documented arrangements across multiple AI platforms simultaneously.

The significance is structural rather than financial. News Corp's litigious posture and scale gave Thomson the standing to name a figure in an investor call rather than bury the arrangement in a confidential settlement. Every mid-tier publisher (The Guardian, Le Monde, Axel Springer) now benchmarks against $1.5bn rather than $250m in their next round. The asymmetry of closed bilateral AI negotiations has been partially resolved by one CEO reading a number into the public record.