【AI+Sora】OpenAI Abruptly Halts Sora AI Video Generation Shocking Market　Disney Informed of Shutdown 30 Minutes After Project Meeting、OpenAI Still Promoting Sora One Day Earlier

SocialAnxietyStaker · 2026-03-25T06:06:55+00:00

AI giant OpenAI is exiting the video generation business. The social media account for Sora announced goodbye to the Sora app. However, after OpenAI released a press release on March 23 (Monday) announcing how to create more safely using Sora, it announced the end of the service on March 24 (Tuesday), withdrawing so hastily that it shocked the market. Even Reuters reported that Disney (US: DIS), which had a partnership with Sora, was in a routine project meeting when, just 30 minutes after the meeting ended, it suddenly received notification that OpenAI would completely abandon the tool. Part of the Sora team at OpenAI

SocialAnxietyStaker

2026-03-25 06:06:55

Artificial intelligence giant OpenAI exits video generation business, social platform account Sora announces farewell to Sora app, but when OpenAI released a press statement on March 23 (Monday) about how to create more safely using Sora, they announced the end of the business on March 24 (Tuesday). The sudden exit plan shocked the market, and even Reuters reported that Disney (NYSE: DIS), which had a partnership with Sora, also abruptly received a notification that OpenAI would completely abandon this tool just 30 minutes after a regular project meeting. Some OpenAI employees on the Sora team were still surprised when they learned of these changes on Tuesday morning.

Streamlining Business Before IPO

Analysts believe that the sudden cancellation of Sora highlights how chaotic OpenAI’s process of streamlining operations might become as it prepares for a potential IPO later this year. OpenAI is shifting its focus to potentially more profitable areas such as coding tools and enterprise clients. Previously reported, OpenAI is simplifying its product line and developing a desktop application that integrates ChatGPT chatbots, coding tools, and web browsing.

Video generation faces intense competition, especially from Seedance under ByteDance, which quickly became popular upon launch. Competitor Anthropic has abandoned image and video generation, instead focusing limited computing resources on text and code processing.

An OpenAI spokesperson stated that as the company’s focus and computational demands grow, the Sora research team will continue to focus on world simulation research to advance robotics technology and help solve real-world problems.

API Closure Also Announced

The Sora team posted on social platform X that they will say goodbye to the Sora app, thanking all users who created, shared, and built communities around Sora. They acknowledged that this news is disappointing, and details about the app and API shutdown schedule, as well as how user creations will be preserved, will be announced later.

A Disney spokesperson said they respect OpenAI’s decision to exit the video generation business and shift priorities elsewhere.

Sora had a three-year partnership with Disney, which had announced plans to invest $1 billion in OpenAI (about 78 billion HKD) and license over 200 iconic characters—including Mickey, Minnie, Cinderella, and others—for AI short video generation.

Reportedly No Financial Deal with Disney

Reuters cited sources saying that the deal between the two companies was never officially completed and there was no financial exchange. Both sides are currently discussing whether there are other ways to collaborate or invest.

The report also mentioned that senior executives at OpenAI have debated the fate of Sora for some time. Running this AI video app requires massive computational resources, which has weakened other teams’ capacity.

Earlier reports indicated that OpenAI’s daily operating costs for AI short video business approach $15 million, amounting to about $5.4 billion annually. It is estimated that generating a 10-second high-quality short video with Sora costs around $1.30 in GPU computing power. The frame rate and physics simulations far exceed what text-only models like ChatGPT require. After launching as a standalone app, Sora attracted millions of daily users, with daily video outputs often exceeding tens of millions. This “free user-driven computational demand” mode made it an extremely resource-intensive machine. In other words, Sora consumed too many of OpenAI’s internal GPU resources, causing other potentially more profitable teams—such as those handling enterprise solutions or code generation—to face resource shortages.

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OpenAI first launched Sora in early 2024, allowing users to generate high-quality, movie-length videos from text prompts, which shocked the tech world. In late September 2025, the Sora app was released, making it easier for users to generate and share realistic AI videos. Sora app once topped the Apple App Store charts but has since fallen in ranking.

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