OpenAI shuts down Sora Video Generator to focus on new super-powerful model Spud
OpenAI has officially announced the shutdown of its most ambitious project of 2024 — the Sora video generator. The developers confirmed the closure of the service and its API, noting that instructions for saving created content will be provided to users soon. The project, which promised to revolutionize film and advertising, is leaving the stage without ever becoming a mass product.
The main reason for this drastic decision is resource reallocation. OpenAI has completed the pretraining of a new massive model codenamed Spud. To provide it with the necessary computing power, the company decided to sacrifice further development of Sora. The anticipated integration of the video generator into ChatGPT has also been postponed indefinitely.
Despite its high-profile launch in early 2024, Sora faced strong competition from services like Runway, Luma, and Kling, which proved to be more accessible and easier for a wider audience to use.
The shutdown of Sora also affects partnerships. The film studio Disney, which had planned to invest $1 billion in the project, announced its withdrawal from the deal.
Nevertheless, OpenAI is not abandoning video work entirely. The Sora team is shifting toward more fundamental research — building systems for simulating the physical world and advancing robotics. CEO Sam Altman is now focused on constructing data centers of “unprecedented scale,” reinforcing the company’s direction toward achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI).
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