ETtech Explainer: Why is OpenAI shutting down Sora, its text

Synopsis

OpenAI is shutting down its Sora video generation platform, including its app, API, and ChatGPT integrations, just over a year after its December 2024 launch. This decision follows internal debates about computational costs and a strategic shift towards more revenue-generating areas like coding and robotics, potentially in preparation for an IPO.

OpenAI has announced that it is shutting down its video generation platform Sora a little over a year after its launch in December 2024.

A post on the Sora handle on X said: “We’re saying goodbye to the Sora app. To everyone who created with Sora, shared it, and built a community around it: thank you. What you made with Sora mattered, and we know this news is disappointing. We’ll share more soon, including timelines for the app and API and details on preserving your work.”

https://x.com/i/status/2036546752535470382

The decision was initially communicated by CEO Sam Altman on Tuesday to the company internally, while the public announcement came early this morning.

How popular was Sora?

Sora, which claimed to generate high-quality 20-second videos, was launched in December 2024. Sora 2, an upgraded model, was launched last September. Per the Arena.ai leaderboard, a crowdsourced platform that ranks models based on user feedback, Sora 2 was among the top two text-to-video models (out of 37), next only to Google’s Veo 3.1 .

When it was launched, according to a report by venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz (a16z), Sora spent 20 days at the top of the US (Apple) App Store and reached 1 million downloads faster than ChatGPT. However, the report noted that downloads decreased subsequently, with retention dropping below 8% 30 days after launch. For the top consumer apps, 30-day retention is above 30%, per the report.

According to the analytics firm SensorTower, the app saw 600,000 mobile downloads in the last one month.

What is being discontinued?

The Sora app, its developer API using which its capabilities could be integrated with other platforms, and integrated video features within ChatGPT.

Why is OpenAI discontinuing Sora?

This signals the company's shift from its ‘launch-everything’ philosophy to a more disciplined approach, per reports, which state that OpenAI is possibly preparing for an initial public offering later this year.

The termination follows internal debates regarding the massive computational requirements for video generation, which reportedly diverted resources from other departments.

OpenAI now aims to focus on verticals that are more revenue generating than Sora, including coding (with Codex), and even new avenues such as robotics. Further, the company is focussing on a desktop superapp to reduce fragmentation and improve software quality.

With the superapp, the company aims to turn towards agentic AI systems capable of autonomously managing complex professional tasks, such as writing software and analysing data.

This also comes against the backdrop of intensifying competition in the AI space, with Anthropic emerging as a close rival to OpenAI. The two companies have been going head-to-head with their respective AI assistants, Claude and ChatGPT, and also vis a vis their coding capabilities.

What are the other implications?

The company’s challenges with maintaining video quality has culminated in the collapse of a landmark $1 billion deal with Disney, signed in December 2025.

Disney had planned to license over 200 iconic characters for AI video creation. According to a Reuters report, Disney has stated that it respects OpenAI’s shift in priorities and will explore partnerships with other platforms.

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