Organisation · company · US

Midjourney

A small, self-funded lab whose Discord-based image generator, known for a painterly house style, has been among the most widely used since it opened in 2022.

9 entries · July 2022 – March 2026

Midjourney is a small, self-funded lab, led by founder David Holz, whose image generator has been among the most widely used since it opened in 2022 — originally run entirely through the chat platform Discord, where prompts and results were posted in public channels, which made image generation a social, shared activity rather than a private tool. It is known for a distinctive, painterly house style and for iterating quickly through numbered model versions, reaching a V8 alpha in early 2026. Unusually for the field, the company has said it is profitable without having raised venture capital. Its models' ability to reproduce recognisable film and cartoon characters on request has drawn copyright suits from Hollywood studios — Disney and Universal sued in June 2025 and Warner Bros. Discovery followed in September — which Midjourney contests, arguing its models learn general visual concepts rather than copying specific works.

Category
Generative media
Founded
2021
HQ
San Francisco, US
Funding
Self-funded; the company says it is profitable without having raised venture capital
Key people
David Holz

Appears alongside

Featured in threads

Tracks

  • Courts & copyright 5
  • Models & capabilities 3
  • Culture & impact 2

  1. Midjourney releases V8 Alpha

    The company said it rewrote its codebase from Google TPU infrastructure to a GPU-native PyTorch stack, enabling native 2K output at roughly five times the generation speed of V7.

    Models & capabilities

  2. Warner Bros. Discovery sues Midjourney for copyright infringement

    Filed in Los Angeles federal court, the complaint named Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Scooby-Doo and Bugs Bunny among characters Midjourney's image generator could reproduce.

    Courts & copyright

  3. Disney and Universal sue Midjourney

    The 110-page complaint sought $150,000 per infringed work over characters including Darth Vader, Elsa and the Minions, which Midjourney's generator would reproduce on request.

    Courts & copyright

  4. Judge lets core copyright claims against Stability AI proceed in Andersen

    Judge William Orrick dismissed DMCA claims but allowed direct copyright-infringement and inducement claims against Stability AI, Midjourney and DeviantArt to proceed to discovery.

    Courts & copyright

  5. Midjourney releases V5

    The update was widely noted for fixing AI image generation's most-mocked failure, malformed hands, and for images some viewers mistook for photographs.

    Models & capabilities

  6. Copyright Office rules AI-generated images in Zarya of the Dawn aren't copyrightable

    The office kept protection for Kashtanova's text and her arrangement of images, but stripped it from each individual image Midjourney had generated.

    Courts & copyright

  7. Artists file a class action over image generators

    Illustrators Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan and Karla Ortiz sued in the Northern District of California, the first case brought by creators rather than rights-holding companies.

    Courts & copyright

  8. An AI image wins the Colorado State Fair art prize

    Jason Allen's Midjourney piece 'Théâtre D'opéra Spatial' took first place in the fair's digital arts category and a $300 prize, and was later denied US copyright registration.

    Culture & impact

  9. Midjourney opens its beta on Discord

    Image requests and results were posted in public chat channels by default, turning generation into a shared, watchable activity rather than a private tool.

    Models & capabilities · Culture & impact

Also mentioned in 7 entries

Referenced in passing — Midjourney isn't the main subject of these.