OpenAI shuts down Sora! 25 months from capping to retiring!

Early this morning, OpenAI's video generation productSoraAnnouncing its shutdown through its official account.Shutting down its video generation application and Sora 2 model API service.

The Sora team released a statement:

We are about to say goodbye to Sora.

Thank you to everyone who creates with Sora, shares their work, and builds a community around it: everything you create with Sora means so much, and we know full well that this news will be disappointing.

We'll be announcing more details as soon as possible, including a timeline for app and API deactivation, and a retention plan for user work.

This one is almost regarded asAI Video GenerationThe product that is synonymous with the field has pressed the pause button to this point.

As soon as the news came out, the community quickly “sent off”. Many netizens posted a picture of “Sora's tombstone”, in which a group of people surrounded the tomb, and “Sora” was engraved on the tombstone, which was accompanied by the logo of the competitor “Seedance 2.0”. The image shows a group of people gathered in front of a tombstone with "Sora" engraved on the tombstone and the logo of competitor "Seedance 2.0". Yesterday, Seedance 2.0 was officially launched globally.

There are also netizens who express regret, saying “Sora had a lot of potential.".

Famous AI blogger NIK bluntly said “As predicted”, and rehashed an old post that previously judged that “Sora will disappear”.Says his end was foretold.. In its previous graph of downloads, theSora heat all the way down.

From official information.The shutdown covers two core capabilities: the standalone Sora app for users and the Sora 2 model API for developers.Both regular creators and developers building video workflows based on Sora will lose their direct calling portals.The Wall Street Journal further disclosed that in addition to standalone apps and APIs, OpenAI will also stop supporting video-related features in ChatGPT.

The Sora team says it will follow up with an announcement of when the app and API will be taken offline, and provide options for saving and migrating users' work.

It is noteworthy that this decision camerather suddenly. Just this week, OpenAI continues to update the Sora product.

retracing its path.Sora has ignited the industry since its debut in early 2024 and is seen as a key node in AI video generation; thereafter launched in 2025Sora 2The iOS and Android apps were also launched, and the iOS version was once ranked No. 1 on the App Store download list, and the product form has evolved from a tool to an “AI version of Tiktok”.

But the competition window did not last long. With the rapid iteration of Runway, Luma, and Google Veo series models, as well as domestic models such as Racer Koring, MiniMax Conch AI, and Byte Seedance, Sora's lead was quickly leveled or even reversed, and user enthusiasm declined.

The commercial level is also raw.2025 In December, Disney had entered the picture with $1 billion, licensed its IP for Sora video generation, and planned to distribute related content in Disney+. But according to foreign media reportsThe partnership was canceled with the shutdown of Sora... For its part, Disney says it will continue to explore AI collaborations, but only if it respects copyrights and creators' rights.

The deeper change lies in OpenAI's overall strategic shift. Several foreign media previously disclosed thatOpenAI is focusing its resources on ChatGPT in an attempt to build a “super app” that integrates chat, code, and authoring capabilities, and video generation was once considered for inclusion..

But video generation is gradually being squeezed out of the core segment in a trade-off between resources and priorities.

The Wall Street Journal also mentioned that OpenAI executive Fidji Simo, in an internal meeting, referred to the Sora-like project as “side quests”, emphasizing the need for resources to return to core products such as Agent Systems. At the same time, this round of focus is also consideredRelated to OpenAI's business grooming for potential IPOs. Previously.There have also been internal questions about the large amount of arithmetic resources consumed by Sora.

OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman also revealed that the Sora team will subsequently move into longer-term directions, such as robotics.

In the longer term, OpenAI is also advancing theOrganizational restructuringSora's exit is more like an “active choice” in this round of center of gravity switching, with its foundation committing $1 billion to cover life sciences, jobs and AI security.

Conclusion: From “nuke release” to being taken out of the mainline

Sora has defined the upper limit of imagination of AI video with a “nuclear release”, but what really affects its direction may be the arithmetic power, product path and company priorities. When resources are gradually tilted towards Agent, programming and enterprise scenarios, the position of Sora is also changing. Under this round of internal adjustments, this product was eventually shut down.

The “Sora Moment”, which amazed the world, came to an end.

Source: Smart Stuff