In a surprise move, OpenAI announced the closure of Sora, its popular AI video-generating platform, mere months after its launch.
On Wednesday, the X handle of the company made the announcement, saying: “We’re saying goodbye to Sora. 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. – The Sora Team”
Sora was a text-to-video AI model which could create short videos or modify existing videos based on user prompts. It was rolled out to the general public in December 2024. In September 2025, the company launched Sora 2. At the same time, an iOS app was released with an interface similar to TikTok.
Like most GenAI tools, Sora was controversial since its launch. Many objected to the use of copyrighted characters in its training, which in turn could generate the said characters without the consent of the copyright owner. There was also the issue of safety and misinformation. Despite the moving watermark added in Sora 2, numerous tools exist that could bypass it.
Meanwhile, reports suggest that Disney is cancelling its $1 billion deal made with OpenAI after the announcement. In December last year, Disney made a deal that would allow more than 200 of its copyrighted characters to be legally generated by Sora.
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Some view the Sora closure as the first step towards the collapse of the AI bubble. Others, however, are not so sure. Numerous other GenAI tools continue to be in use, with more being added every day. Even with Sora’s closure, OpenAI itself continue to have the AI video-generation capabilities integrated within ChatGPT itself.
