After quickly becoming one of the buzziest generative AI video creation apps since its announcement in 2024, OpenAI is discontinuing Sora, the company said, without offering a reason.
The app could produce short videos reminiscent of Hollywood films. Even three months ago, it signed a three-year licensing deal with Disney, allowing Sora users to generate videos featuring characters such as Mickey Mouse, Cinderella and Yoda. OpenAI had also showcased a second-generation Sora model with higher-quality video, audio capabilities and more accurate physics — developments that raised concerns in Hollywood.
“We’re saying goodbye to the Sora app. To everyone who created with Sora, shared it, and built a community around it: thank you. What you made with Sora mattered, and we know this news is disappointing,” OpenAI said in a post on X.
Sora app reached one million downloads in less than five days after its launch in late October. The closure comes ahead of an expected initial public offering from OpenAI in the coming months, as the company looks to rein in costs and justify its $730 billion valuation.
Disney is also exiting the deal it signed with OpenAI last year. “As the nascent AI field advances rapidly, we respect OpenAI’s decision to exit the video generation business and shift its priorities elsewhere,” a Walt Disney Company spokesperson told The Guardian.
This does not mark the end of OpenAI’s efforts in AI video. The technology is likely to continue as part of the ChatGPT app, but the standalone Sora app is becoming a casualty of the company’s evolving priorities.
Running a video generation service without significant revenue can be enormously expensive. AI technologies like Sora require far more computing power and electricity than traditional internet services.
It may additionally reflect OpenAI’s decision to reallocate computing resources towards more lucrative areas such as coding, reasoning or text generation. Just weeks ago, the company announced it had raised $110 billion in fresh funding.
The announcement also positions Google more strongly in the AI video generation space.