OpenAI closes Sora video-making app and cancels $1bn Disney deal

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The end of the billion-dollar alliance with Disney

One of the most spectacular consequences of this decision is the collapse of the partnership with **The Walt Disney Company**. The agreement, signed in December, was intended to last three years and allow users to legally utilize the entertainment giant's intellectual property. Thanks to it, iconic characters such as **Mickey Mouse** or **Yoda** from the Star Wars saga could appear in AI-generated materials. This was the first instance where a major film studio decided to license its assets to an AI technology company, which was meant to silence copyright disputes. Despite the massive financial scale of the agreement, Reuters reports that no actual money transfers took place between the entities before its termination. A Disney spokesperson stated in an official communication that the company respects OpenAI's decision to withdraw from the video business and intends to seek other platforms that will allow for the responsible use of technology without infringing on intellectual property rights. For the film industry, which feared that AI would replace talent and craft, OpenAI's sudden retreat is a momentary sigh of relief, although the market abhors a vacuum.

Economics vs. Ambition: Why did Sora fail?

Although **Sora** inspired visual awe, its business model proved unsustainable. Market data provided by **Sensor Tower** sheds light on the brutal financial reality: since its launch, the platform generated only **$1.4 million** in net app revenue. During the same period, the company's flagship product, **ChatGPT**, brought in a staggering **$1.9 billion**. This gap shows that despite the media hype, commercial interest in AI video generation was marginal compared to text-based tools. Analysts, including Thomas Husson from Forrester, describe the project as a "resource black hole." The high costs of computing power needed to render realistic clips did not translate into profits. Additionally, the platform struggled with ethical and legal issues, such as:

• Difficulties in blocking content generated without the consent of third parties (deepfakes).
• The risk of disinformation through the creation of overly realistic materials.
• Ongoing allegations of copyright infringement during model training.

New Direction: Robotics and Agentic Systems

The decision to shut down Sora does not mean OpenAI is withdrawing from innovation. On the contrary – the company plans to use the technology behind Sora's visual success to train robots. Knowledge of how AI interprets the physics of the world and movement in three-dimensional space is set to become the foundation for a new generation of machines capable of performing complex physical tasks. OpenAI aims to create "agentic" technology, meaning systems that act autonomously, making decisions and achieving goals with minimal human supervision. Experts suggest that this radical shift may also have a strategic basis ahead of a planned stock market debut. OpenAI, which remains an unprofitable company, must minimize reputational and financial risks to attract public investors. Getting rid of a loss-making project that stirs legal controversy in Hollywood allows the company to focus on more pragmatic and scalable solutions that could revolutionize industry and logistics, not just the entertainment sector. It is worth emphasizing that the closure of Sora does not affect the image generation tools available within **ChatGPT**. These features remain active and will continue to be developed. However, in the world of video, OpenAI is yielding the field to competitors such as the Chinese **Seedance**, which recently gained notoriety through viral clips featuring characters from blockbuster hits. The withdrawal from the video market battle by the most powerful player is a signal that the barriers to entry and maintenance in this segment are currently too high even for Silicon Valley giants. The abandonment of the **Sora** project is a clear message: the era of experimentation at all costs is coming to an end, giving way to hard business calculation. The focus on utility technology and robotics suggests that OpenAI sees greater potential in the automation of physical reality than in digital illusion. This is a strategic retreat that may define the shape of the AI market for years to come.