⁂ L. RhodesYou can get a rough sense of how much generative video was costing OpenAI by the fact that they were willing to turn down a $1 billion dollar investment from Disney rather than keep running Sora: https://variety.com/2026/digital/news/openai-shutting-down-sora-video-disney-1236698277/
Part of the calculation here, I would guess, is that OpenAI has an IPO coming up, which means they're going to have to start being much more transparent about their finances. Dropping an expensive service that has no hope of recouping its costs is one way to manage people's perception of the value of the company as an investment.
The closure of Sora is a solid exhibit for the argument that the affordability of at least some forms of consumer AI is an illusion that will evaporate once these technologies have to actually start paying for themselves, rather than coasting on VC funding.
If OpenAI, the company with arguably the largest head start and the most funding for R&D, can't make on-demand, AI-generated video economically feasible, then it probably just… isn't.