tech
March 30, 2026
Why OpenAI Really Shut Down Sora
OpenAI's decision last week to shut down Sora, its AI video-generation tool, just six months after releasing it to the public raised immediate suspicions. The app had invited users to upload their own faces — so was this some kind of elaborate data grab?
TL;DR
- OpenAI shut down its AI video-generation tool Sora six months after its public release.
- The decision was driven by high daily costs (around $1 million) and a significant drop in user numbers, from one million to under 500,000.
- Sora's expenses were largely due to the high cost of running video generation, which consumed finite AI chips.
- The closure allowed OpenAI to refocus on more profitable areas, like Claude Code, which was competing effectively with rivals.
- Disney, which had pledged $1 billion to a partnership with Sora, learned of the shutdown less than an hour before it was publicly announced, leading to the deal's collapse.
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