OpenAI has abruptly closed Sora, its text-to-video app and API. That ends a Disney arrangement announced in December, which had not been finalised, under which Sora would use Disney characters and the studio would invest a reported $1 billion.
The decision seems to have been rushed: OpenAI posted a Sora safety guide on March 23, a day before the announcement, and Reuters reported that Disney's teams heard only after a joint meeting. OpenAI says it is moving resources to enterprise and coding tools, robotics and world simulation. Observers point to video's compute costs, copyright and legal trouble, and unclear revenue.
No money had changed hands, so Disney loses little in cash. Cartoon Brew notes guilds and artists had opposed the deal over licensed characters and training data, and says the reversal shows how quickly AI video tools can be dropped. Critics read it as the AI bubble bursting, while supporters expect rival video models to fill the gap; the site argues it is too early to tell.
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