«Goodbye, Sora! Goodbye, Disney!»: OpenAI shuts down its video generator just six months after launch
Aleksandr Manin
Today, OpenAI announced the shutdown of Sora — a text-to-video generator the company launched in September 2025.
We’re saying goodbye to Sora. To everyone who created with it, shared results, and built a community around it — thank you.
The exact timeline for shutting down the app and API will be announced later.
Sora’s closure also breaks a high-profile deal with Disney, signed in December 2025. Under the three-year agreement, Disney planned to invest $1 billion into OpenAI and provide access to more than 200 characters from its franchises — Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars — for video creation in Sora. Disney+ was expected to publish curated collections of generated videos. The deal is now canceled.
We respect OpenAI’s decision to exit the video generation business. We value the collaboration between our teams and will continue working with AI platforms to find new ways to meet fans where they are.
From the very beginning, Sora sparked controversy — early on, the app allowed users to generate videos featuring well-known characters and actors with virtually no restrictions, which triggered backlash from Hollywood. OpenAI was forced to quickly tighten its policies. According to WSJ, Sora’s shutdown is part of a broader company strategy: focusing on business and coding tools ahead of a planned IPO at the end of 2026.
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