OpenAI announces the closure of Sora, ending its $1 billion partnership with Disney.

According to Mars Finance, OpenAI announced it will shut down the application and API of its AI video generation platform, Sora, citing a shift in focus to world simulation research to advance robotics. Sora debuted in February 2024 as a text-to-video tool, later expanding into an independent social video platform and adding the "cameos" feature allowing users to embed AI scenarios. However, its daily operating costs reached approximately $15 million. The closure also terminates a major collaboration—Disney had planned to invest $1 billion to license OpenAI to use over 250 Disney characters to create AI videos. Disney stated it respects OpenAI's decision and will continue to explore other AI collaboration methods. OpenAI emphasized that the AI image generation functionality within ChatGPT will not be affected and will announce the application and API shutdown schedule and user data retention plan.