OpenAI Kills Sora Video Tool Over Massive Daily Losses and Plunging Usage
OpenAI shuts down its Sora video generator because it burns $1 million daily while user numbers collapse. The sudden closure allows the company to redirect computing power toward profitable enterprise products.
OpenAI abruptly shuts down Sora, its AI video-generation tool, just six months after its public launch. A new Wall Street Journal report reveals that the closure has nothing to do with privacy concerns over user-uploaded faces, but rather stems from simple economics. The app costs approximately $1 million every single day to operate due to the massive computing power required for video generation.
Despite a highly publicized debut, Sora sees its worldwide user base peak at around one million before plummeting to fewer than 500,000 active users. While this small group of users creates expensive fantasy videos, rival Anthropic is quietly capturing the lucrative enterprise market. Anthropic's Claude Code product is actively drawing away the software engineers and business customers that generate reliable revenue.
Facing these realities, CEO Sam Altman makes the decisive call to terminate Sora and redirect those valuable AI chips toward more profitable endeavors. The shutdown happens so suddenly that Disney, which commits $1 billion to a Sora partnership, learns about the closure less than an hour before the public announcement. This strategic pivot shows OpenAI's desperate need to refocus on winning the enterprise AI race.