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OpenAI announced on March 24–25, 2026 that it will discontinue its Sora text-to-video model, consumer app and developer API, and is winding down a recently publicised partnership with The Walt Disney Company.
Launched in late 2024 and remade as a standalone social app in September 2025, Sora helped popularise high‑quality AI video generation but drew criticism over deepfakes, copyright risk and “AI slop.” OpenAI said the Sora research team will refocus on world‑simulation research and robotics and that the company is reallocating compute as demand grows.
Reports say the reported $1 billion Disney investment and character‑licensing agreement never closed and will not proceed following the shut‑down.
The move follows falling user engagement, high computational costs, internal strategic shifts ahead of an expected IPO and leadership memos prioritising agentic and enterprise products.
OpenAI has pledged timelines for winding down services and options for users to preserve their work.
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Reporting and observer commentary converge: Sora’s low user retention and high compute costs made it economically untenable amid rising competition from B2B-focused rivals. OpenAI is likely reallocating resources to enterprise products and robotics while addressing reputational and manipulation risks from deepfakes.







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