OpenAI closes Sora, the app for creating realistic videos with generative artificial intelligence launched a few months ago and which had raised alarm for deepfakes and copyright infringement. “We know this news is disappointing, thanks to everyone who created with Sora, shared it, and helped build a community,” the company says in an official post.
Among the reasons for the farewell, according to rumors from the Wall Street Journal, there would be the high management costs of the platform which are not preparatory to a landing on the stock exchange.
Among the collateral victims of the decision is Disney which had announced an investment of 1 billion. Sora had entered the technological world in February 2024 with the testing of the first AI-generated videos. It then exited the experimental phase and became an app in its own right in autumn 2025 with the ability to create realistic videos quickly and easily and share them with other users.
The service went viral, reaching one million downloads in less than five days after its launch. The announcement of the closure of Sora also took Disney by surprise, which until a few hours earlier had been sitting at the table with Sam Altman’s company to define the terms of the 1 billion dollar agreement signed last December: it involved the landing on the platform of around 200 characters including those from Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars.
“We appreciate the constructive collaboration, will continue to engage with AI platforms, and respect OpenAI’s decision to exit the video generation business and shift its priorities elsewhere,” a Disney spokesperson said.
According to the American newspaper CNBC, the closure of Sora could be the consequence of a strategy to reduce operating costs which have become high, “in an attempt to justify the valuation of 730 billion dollars and prepare the ground for a potential landing on the stock exchange” which could take place within this year. With market shares eroded in the meantime by competitors such as Google and the Chinese Bytedance.
As a result, OpenAI could focus its efforts on ChatGpt, Codex for programming, and the Atlas browser that incorporates AI. While the OpenAI foundation plans to invest 1 billion dollars next year for scientific research and to analyze the effects of artificial intelligence on society, including on the world of work.
Criticism from the world of creativity, Hollywood in the lead, for the ease of this and other AI software in generating cinema-quality video from text input and for copyright violations may also have contributed to the decision to close Sora. And also for the generation of fake content, a topic on which the bar of sensitivity has been raised all over the world.
In December, the US consumer protection group Eko had compiled research according to which accessing Sora with profiles of 13 and 14 year old teenagers could push the AI to generate videos contrary to the use policies for minors.