OpenAI Shuts Down Sora, Scrapping a $1 Billion Disney Partnership

OpenAI pulled the plug on Sora on Sunday, shutting down the AI video generator it launched eight months ago and ending a $1 billion content partnership with Walt Disney.

The app and its website went dark today as scheduled. Developer access through Sora’s API will continue until September 24, when all model endpoints, including Sora 2 and Sora 2 Pro, will be shut off as well.

What Altman said

Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, framed the decision around where the company needs to concentrate its computing resources — not on what the product couldn’t do.

“I love Sora, I love generating videos, and I love our partnership with Disney,” Altman said. “But we need to concentrate our compute and our product capacity into these next generation of automated researchers and companies.”

He added that he spoke with Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro personally before the shutdown became public and felt “terrible” delivering the news.

A billion-dollar bet that lasted less than a year

Disney signed a licensing agreement with OpenAI in December 2025, committing roughly $1 billion over three years in exchange for the ability to generate content using characters from its Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars libraries. It was one of the largest known AI partnerships in the entertainment industry.

Disney was notified of the shutdown less than an hour before OpenAI made the announcement public, according to multiple reports citing people familiar with the situation. The company offered a measured public response.

“As the nascent AI field advances rapidly, we respect OpenAI’s decision to exit the video generation business and to shift its priorities elsewhere,” Disney said in a statement.

OpenAI and Disney are reportedly still talking about alternative arrangements. No specifics have been disclosed.

The economics didn’t add up

Sora’s closure follows months of reporting that the product’s costs were running far ahead of any realistic revenue path. TechCrunch estimated the service cost roughly $1 million per day in computing resources while monthly active users had declined from roughly one million at launch to fewer than 500,000.

OpenAI has not confirmed those figures publicly. The company’s stated reason — compute reallocation toward AI research agents and enterprise products — is consistent with the direction Altman has signaled all year.

The shutdown leaves the AI video generation space without its highest-profile entrant. Competitors including Google, Runway, and Pika remain active and will likely absorb users looking for alternatives.

Users who created content through Sora can download their videos at sora.chatgpt.com before the service completes its wind-down.