Higgsfield accused of fake AI demos, racist deepfakes, and copyright violations in Forbes exposé
Feb 12, 2026
Key Points
- Forbes investigation finds Higgsfield passed off stock footage as AI-generated, distributed non-consensual deepfakes of celebrities, and shared racist content featuring Disney characters.
- Higgsfield scaled to $300M annualized revenue in 11 months but co-founder acknowledged the company 'explicitly' pursues controversial content for engagement, attributing policy violations to broken processes.
- CEO targets $1B ARR by year-end after $80M raise in January; Disney expected to pursue legal action over unauthorized character deepfakes as startup courts additional funding.
Summary
Forbes published an investigation into Higgsfield, the AI video generation startup claiming $300M in annualized revenue run rate across 300,000 paying users after 11 months. The reporting found the company used stock video footage falsely presented as AI-generated in influencer marketing kits, shared non-consensual deepfakes of public figures including Sydney Sweeney, Zendaya, and President Trump, and distributed racist content featuring characters like Shrek and Mickey Mouse through shared Google Drive folders.
Highsfield co-founder and chief strategy officer Mahi told Forbes the misleading media kit was created by an employee for ideation purposes and inadvertently shared with creators due to processes that went haywire. Mahi also acknowledged the company's strategy explicitly: "We fully admit that we push the envelope. We learn from what works on platforms like X, and very explicitly, it's more controversial content that gets attention."
The company doubled its annualized revenue to $200M in two weeks, then crossed $300M by early February. CEO Alex told Forbes he aims to reach $1B ARR by year-end after raising $80M from Accel and Menlo in mid-January. Higgsfield is now in talks to raise again.
The startup's X account was suspended after launching Higgsfield Earn, a clipping program where users could generate content and earn money based on engagement. The platform likely flagged the volume of policy-violating material being shared.
Highsfield competes against Chinese open-source video models with no content guardrails that see massive demand for unrestricted generation. That demand is real but legally unsustainable. Stock footage passed off as AI output and unlicensed celebrity deepfakes represent fraud and copyright infringement respectively. Disney, which invested $1B into OpenAI as part of an exclusive licensing deal, is expected to pursue legal action over the unauthorized use of its characters.