David Holz

In 2025, multiple major studios filed copyright infringement lawsuits against Midjourney. Disney, NBC Universal, and DreamWorks sued June 2025 alleging 'mass infringement.' Warner Bros. sued September 2025 claiming Midjourney 'willfully creates both still images and video' of Superman, Batman, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tom and Jerry. Studios alleged Midjourney 'will readily generate images of copyrighted characters by name'—users need only prompt 'Yoda' not 'short, elderly, green humanoid alien.' Complaint states 'Midjourney has no internal protocols intended to prevent such use of the platform.' Artist class action from January 2023 also ongoing. Midjourney defense asserts fair use, comparing AI training to how humans learn art.

In multiple 2022 interviews, Midjourney founder and CEO David Holz openly admitted that the company trained its AI on 'hundreds of millions' of existing artworks and photographs scraped from the internet without consent from creators. Holz stated they 'grab everything they can, dump it in a huge file, and set it on fire to train some huge thing.' When asked about seeking consent, Holz said 'There isn't really a way to get a hundred million images and know where they're coming from.' He argued the process was 'kind of like a search engine' and compared it to how humans learn, claiming existing law doesn't specifically address this. Midjourney later confirmed it made $300 million in 2024 using these models.

Holz founded Midjourney in 2021 as independent research lab with mission to 'expand the imaginative powers of the human species.' Built one of the most successful AI companies while rejecting venture capital—VCs 'practically begging' for investment but Holz refused. Achieved profitability within one year. Revenue reached $500M in 2025 (up from $300M in 2024). Midjourney Discord server grew to 19.94 million users, becoming largest server on entire platform. Democratized AI art generation, making it accessible to millions of creators. Holz's philosophy: 'The goal is to make humans more imaginative, not make imaginative machines.'

In 2010, Holz co-founded Leap Motion with Michael Buckwald, developing computer vision-based gesture recognition for human-computer interaction. Leap Motion Controller used infrared cameras to capture 3D hand movements, enabling precise contactless control without physical touch. Technology 'eliminates the need for fine motor control,' making it 'a great option for users with mobility impairments or other disabilities.' Created 'new levels of accessibility for students with special needs.' Supported projects like Diplopia (lazy eye treatment using VR), MotionSavvy (American Sign Language interpretation tablet), and Arabic Sign Language recognition achieving 89-96% accuracy. Controller shipped July 2013; company raised $45M from Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund. Sold to Ultrahaptics 2019 for $30M.