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Midjourney

Midjourney is a San Francisco-based independent research lab that runs an image generator. Founded and led by David Holz, it has never taken outside funding and has been involved in several copyright lawsuits.

Website midjourney.com Era Large models

2025 · 4 20222026
Events per year
10Models & products12Events1People

What it is

Midjourney is a San Francisco-based company that calls itself an “independent research lab”. It is the company behind the Midjourney image generator, which turns text prompts into pictures.[1] It was founded and is led by David Holz, who previously co-founded the hand-tracking company Leap Motion.[1]

Origins

Its first image model, V1, was released in February 2022. The service entered open beta on 12 July 2022, run through Discord.[1][6]

In August 2022 Holz said the company had about 10 people, was self-funded with no investors, and was already profitable. Its subscriptions cost $10 or $30 a month.[2] He also said the service served hundreds of thousands of users, ran on about 10,000 servers, and employed about 40 moderators.[2]

Main features

The model line has progressed through numbered versions. V1 (February 2022), V2 (April 2022), V3 (July 2022), V4 (November 2022), V5 (March 2023), V6 (December 2023), V7 (April 2025) and V8 (March 2026) are the main releases, alongside the anime-focused Niji models.[1]

Starting with V4, the models were trained on Google TPUs, which are Google’s custom processors for machine learning.[1]

In June 2025 the company launched its first video model, V1 Video.[1]

Position in the industry

In August 2025 Meta announced that it would license Midjourney’s image and video technology. Holz said Midjourney remained independent, with no outside investors.[3]

Midjourney has never taken outside funding, and it was reportedly on pace for $200 million in revenue by 2023.[3]

Legal disputes

Disney and Universal sued Midjourney for copyright infringement on 11 June 2025. Warner Bros. Discovery sued on 4 September 2025. The cases were consolidated in November 2025.[4][5][1]

Midjourney was also a defendant in a copyright suit filed in January 2023 by artists against Stability AI, Midjourney and DeviantArt.[1]

A research lab, in the sense Midjourney uses the term, is an organization that works on new methods and tools, and it may release what it builds as products that the public can use.

CapabilitiesImage generation

TechniquesGenerative models

ApplicationsConsumer appsCreative tools

20261

  1. ReleaseMidjourney releases the V8 alpha

    Midjourney released the V8 alpha on 17 March 2026, generating images about five times faster, with a native 2K --hd mode, improved text rendering, new prompt parameters and a Grid Mode interface. Point releases followed later that year.

20254

  1. PartnershipMeta licenses Midjourney's image and video technology

    On 22 August 2025, Meta said it would license Midjourney's AI image and video generation technology, with Meta research teams collaborating with the startup. Financial terms were not disclosed, and Midjourney said it remains independent.

  2. ReleaseMidjourney launches its first video model

    On 18 June 2025, Midjourney released V1, its first video model, which turns images into short clips and names real-time open-world simulation as a long-term goal.

  3. PolicyDisney and Universal sue Midjourney

    In 2025 Disney and Universal, followed by Warner Bros. Discovery, sued the AI image service Midjourney for copyright infringement; the three cases were later consolidated.

  4. ReleaseMidjourney releases the V7 alpha

    On 4 April 2025 Midjourney opened the V7 alpha to its community. It brought default personalization, a faster and cheaper Draft Mode, voice prompting on the web, and a conversational prompt bar.

20241

  1. PolicyUS judge lets artists' claims against image generators proceed

    In August 2024 a US judge let illustrators suing Stability AI, Midjourney, DeviantArt and Runway AI pursue some copyright and trademark claims, while leaving the core training-data question undecided.

20233

  1. ReleaseMidjourney releases V6

    On 21 December 2023 Midjourney released version 6 of its image model in alpha, trained from scratch over nine months and better at rendering text. V6.1 followed on 30 July 2024 with faster, more coherent output and became the default model.

  2. ReleaseMidjourney releases V5

    Midjourney released version 5 of its text-to-image service in alpha on 15 March 2023, after founder David Holz said it would arrive that week. Test images showed a higher default resolution and a wider range of styles, and point releases followed through the summer.

  3. PolicyArtists sue Stability AI, Midjourney and DeviantArt over training data

    In January 2023 three artists filed a class-action copyright suit against Stability AI, Midjourney and DeviantArt, saying their image generators were trained on artists' work without permission — an early test of how copyright law applies to generative AI.

20223

  1. ReleaseMidjourney releases V4 in alpha

    On 5 November 2022 Midjourney released the alpha version of V4, its fourth numbered image model, which was trained on Google TPUs and was described as a large jump in quality over V3.

  2. MilestoneMidjourney image wins the Colorado State Fair digital art prize

    In August 2022 an image made with Midjourney by Jason Allen, Théâtre D'opéra Spatial, took first place in the digital art category at the Colorado State Fair, setting off a widely reported argument about AI-generated art.

  3. ReleaseMidjourney opens its public beta

    On 12 July 2022 Midjourney opened its text-to-image generator to the public as an open beta, run entirely through a bot on Discord, with subscriptions costing $10 or $30 a month.

Models and products over time

10
  1. 2022
    • Feb 2022 Midjourney V1 Model

      Midjourney V1 was Midjourney's first image-generation model, released in February 2022 and used through a bot on the company's Discord server. It produced abstract, painterly images and was replaced by V2 and V3 within months.

    • Apr 12, 2022 Midjourney V2 Model

      Midjourney V2 was the second model version of Midjourney's image generation model, released on 12 April 2022 and the default model until V3 arrived that July. Midjourney later described it as colorful and painterly but low in coherency.

    • Jul 12, 2022 Midjourney Product

      Midjourney is an AI image generation service from Midjourney, Inc. Its open beta began on 12 July 2022 through a Discord bot, and it later added a website, video generation and new model versions.

    • Jul 25, 2022 Midjourney V3 Model

      Midjourney V3, released on 25 July 2022, was the third model version of Midjourney; it raised image quality sharply by learning from how users behaved, and it produced the image that won a Colorado State Fair digital-art prize.

    • Nov 5, 2022 Midjourney V4 Model

      Midjourney V4 is the fourth-generation image generation model released in alpha on 5 November 2022. It was the first Midjourney model trained on Google TPUs, and reviewers described it as a large step up from V3.

  2. 2023
    • Mar 15, 2023 Midjourney V5 Model

      Midjourney V5 is a version of the Midjourney text-to-image model, released in alpha on 15 March 2023 and refined through the 5.x line before being succeeded by V6 in December 2023.

    • Dec 21, 2023 Midjourney V6 Model

      Midjourney V6 is a version of Midjourney's image generation model, released in alpha on 21 December 2023 and trained from scratch over nine months; its 6.1 update followed in July 2024.

  3. 2025
    • Apr 4, 2025 Midjourney V7 Model

      Midjourney V7 is an image generation model released as an alpha to Midjourney's community on 4 April 2025, the first of the company's models to have personalization on by default and the first to add a cheap, fast Draft Mode.

    • Jun 18, 2025 Midjourney V1 Video Model

      Midjourney's first video model, released on 18 June 2025, turns an existing image into a short clip of about five seconds. It was presented as the company's first step toward real-time open-world simulation.

  4. 2026
    • Mar 17, 2026 Midjourney V8 Model

      Midjourney V8, released as an alpha on 17 March 2026, generates images about five times faster than earlier versions, adds a native 2K mode, and improves rendering of text inside images.

People1

David Holz

Notes and sources

  1. Midjourneyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midjourney
  2. David Holz, founder of AI art generator Midjourney, on the future of imaginghttps://www.theregister.com/2022/08/01/david_holz_midjourney/
  3. Meta partners with Midjourney on AI image and video modelshttps://techcrunch.com/2025/08/22/meta-partners-with-midjourney-on-ai-image-and-video-models/
  4. Disney, Universal sue image creator Midjourney for copyright infringementhttps://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/disney-universal-sue-image-creator-midjourney-copyright-infringement-2025-06-11
  5. Warner Bros. Discovery sues Midjourneyhttps://deadline.com/2025/09/ai-lawsuit-warner-bros-midjourney-1236508020/
  6. Midjourney open beta announcementhttps://twitter.com/midjourney/status/1547108864788553729

Cite this page: Midjourney. TellWorld, https://www.tellworld.net/companies/midjourney. Updated 2026-11-08