OpenAI has discontinued its AI video tool Sora, a move that caught partner teams at Walt Disney Co off guard.

 

On Monday evening, teams from both companies were working on a project linked to Sora. Around 30 minutes after that meeting, Disney’s team was informed that OpenAI would be shutting down the tool.

 

The decision was announced publicly on Tuesday.

 

The development also brings an end to a proposed $1 billion agreement between the two companies. The deal, announced a little over three months ago, involved Disney investing $1 billion in OpenAI over three years and allowing the use of more than 200 of its characters in AI-generated short videos. 

 

OpenAI’s decision reflects a shift in its business priorities toward areas such as coding tools and enterprise services.

 

The announcement also came as a surprise to some employees working at Sora, who were informed of the change on Tuesday morning. This followed a company blog post published a day earlier outlining safety standards for the tool.

 

“We’re saying goodbye to Sora ... we know this news is disappointing,” the Sora team said in a post on X, adding that details about timelines for the app, its Application Programming Interface (API), and user data handling would be shared later.

 

OpenAI is now directing its efforts toward other areas, including robotics and artificial general intelligence. As part of this shift, Fidji Simo’s role was changed from CEO of applications to CEO of AGI deployment.

 

In a separate move, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company’s safety and security teams would no longer report directly to him.

 

A Disney spokesperson said the company respects “OpenAI's decision to exit the video generation business and to shift its priorities elsewhere”.

 

OpenAI first introduced Sora in early 2024, presenting a system capable of generating video from text prompts. The standalone app was launched in September 2025, allowing users to create and share AI-generated content.

 

The decision comes as competition in the AI sector increases, particularly in enterprise and coding-focused products. Rival firms, including Anthropic, have expanded their focus on coding-based models with its Claude Code product gaining traction among developers.