December 14, 2025
Sometimes, things naturally slow down as we head into the festive season. This year, though, it feels like the exact opposite.
Here at mogul, everything’s still moving at a million miles an hour, in the best way possible. We’ve got some amazing new supply coming onboard, demand continuing to ramp up, and plenty of momentum carrying us into the end of the year.
For now, however, there's a lot to cover from this week's news. Let's get into it.
- Alex Blackwood
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🚢 Venezuelan Opposition Leader María Corina Machado’s Risky Escape - Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado was successfully rescued out of the country in a clandestine, high-stakes operation that involved a perilous sea crossing. Machado, who had been in hiding for over a year, reportedly wore a wig and a disguise to pass through 10 military checkpoints before reaching a remote fishing port. The riskiest leg of her journey involved a small, open fishing skiff crossing the open Caribbean Sea toward Curaçao in rough, pitch-black conditions, with a US-backed rescue foundation coordinating the rendezvous to get her to Norway.
💰 Paramount Skydance Escalates Hostile Bid for Warner Bros. Discovery Amid Netflix Rivalry - The Warner Bros. sage has intensified as Paramount reportedly placed a $108.4 billion all-cash hostile takeover bid for the entirety of Warner Bros. Discovery, directly appealing to shareholders after Warner Bros. favored Netflix's $82.7 billion deal for its studios, HBO Max, and streaming assets. It will be fascinating to see how this one unfolds, we're definitely a long way away.
🔹Google unveils “Disco”- Google has introduced Disco through Google Labs, a new AI-driven browser experience that uses its Gemini 3 model to generate interactive GenTabs apps from the content you’re browsing, helping you visualize information, plan trips, organize tasks and more without writing code; the feature is initially available to a limited group of testers via a waitlist, and Google suggests that ideas developed in Disco could later roll into broader products. Not going to lie, this sounds pretty neat and I know a lot of people who love using Perplexity’s Comet as their browser with the agentic use, but let’s see where this goes.
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The Walt Disney Company is strategically resetting its relationship with the AI industry, announcing a landmark agreement with OpenAI.
Disney is making a major pivot with a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI, its first significant venture capital move into core AI infrastructure. Crucially, the deal includes a three-year licensing agreement granting OpenAI’s advanced text-to-video model, Sora, access to over 200 of Disney's most valuable intellectual properties, including Mickey Mouse, Cinderella, Marvel, and Star Wars, ensuring these characters shape the new era of AI-generated content.
Revolutionary Agreement
The Disney-Sora alliance allows fans to generate 30-second video clips using the licensed Disney library, a move CEO Bob Iger called a "thoughtful and responsible" expansion into short-form social content. To maintain brand control, Disney will curate and stream selected fan-created Sora videos directly on Disney+, turning fans into unofficial animators within a "walled garden" that avoids using actor likenesses or voices to bypass labor issues.
Disney's Unique Approach
Disney is simultaneously partnering with and fighting AI companies. While licensing content to OpenAI, Disney is suing Google, sending a cease-and-desist letter accusing the search giant of "massive-scale" copyright infringement. Disney claims Google used its copyrighted material, including characters from The Simpsons, Deadpool, and The Lion King, to train its AI models, Veo and Imagen, without permission or payment. This strategy aims to establish that companies who license content are partners, while those who "scrape" the internet for training data are "pirates," forcing AI developers to recognize premium intellectual property as a paid resource.
A New Script for Hollywood
The implications of this deal ripple far beyond a single studio’s balance sheet, acting as a foundational blueprint for the entire entertainment industry. For years, Hollywood has been paralyzed by the fear that AI would replace human creativity or cannibalize existing franchises. Disney’s $1 billion bet suggests a third path: co-option. But ultimately, this path is fraught with controversy.
Creative unions and children’s advocacy groups have already voiced concerns about the long-term impact on professional animators and the safety of AI-generated content for minors. By legitimizing Sora, Disney is acknowledging that the tide of generative video cannot be held back by lawsuits alone; it must be channeled into a revenue-generating stream. As the next few years unfold, this partnership will determine whether the magic of Disney can survive in an era where anyone with a text prompt can become a director, or if the studio has just handed over the keys to its kingdom.
Over $130,000 has already been raised for The Rex, a newly converted 8-bed, 4-bath PadSplit in Mesa, AZ, positioned to deliver strong cash flow from day one. Renovations are wrapping up, and mogul secured a de-risked structure in which the seller fully funds all development and furnishings while launching the property on PadSplit one month before closing. Spanning 1,900+ square feet with an efficient layout designed to maximize per-room revenue.
The Rex is underwritten for $69,000 in Year 1 rental income, with room for upside as the asset stabilizes. This off-market opportunity builds on mogul’s proven PadSplit performance in Arizona and offers investors compelling projected returns, including a 2.2x levered MOIC and an 11.8% average yield.
With a sellout imminent, this might be your last chance to invest in this one.
The late, great Anthony Bourdain had a knack for making you feel like you were right there with him. Well, just half a step behind, slightly underdressed, and hungry for whatever was around the corner. A Cook’s Tour is Bourdain in motion: restless, funny, opinionated, and disarmingly honest as he chases down meals that are never just meals. It’s travel writing with a chef’s palate and a storyteller’s instinct so unique to him.
What makes the book so addictive is the way Bourdain turns food into a lens for everything else: pride, history, class, ego, hospitality, and the odd little rituals that bind people together. He’s as sharp on the page as you’d expect.
If you’re new to Bourdain, A Cook’s Tour is the perfect entry point. It’s less reflective than his later work, but it already has the voice so many of us came to love. You finish it wanting to book a flight, take a seat at someone else’s table, and order the thing you don’t recognize...because Bourdain convinces you that curiosity is the whole point.
⭐ 4.84 / 5.0 in my book (no pun intended)
Your heart rate tends to sync slightly with the tempo of the song you're listening to. Pretty neat if you ask me.
Written by Alex Blackwood & Larry Cummings
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