OpenAI mentioned Tuesday it could discontinue Sora, its AI video app, roughly six months after launch. The corporate additionally mentioned it could shutter the Sora API that allowed builders and Hollywood studios to entry the text-to-video mannequin.
The transfer exhibits how the ChatGPT-maker is attempting to focus its efforts forward of a deliberate IPO. OpenAI’s chief monetary officer, Sarah Friar, mentioned in an interview with CNBC Tuesday that OpenAI wants to be “prepared to be a public firm.”
Since ChatGPT’s launch, CEO Sam Altman has run the firm like Y Combinator, the Silicon Valley incubator he used to lead, inserting bets on a variety of merchandise. This contains Sora, in addition to a browser, a household of hardware devices, robots, and Codex, its AI-powered coding agent.
These efforts have had various ranges of success, and Sora’s development specifically has stalled in current months. After peaking at 3.3 million worldwide downloads throughout iOS and Android in November 2025, downloads of the Sora app fell to simply 1.1 million by February 2026, in accordance to the third-party analytics agency Appfigures.
Researchers at OpenAI have described the firm’s tradition over the final a number of years as “bottom-up,” that means that the firm allocates assets to promising concepts as they emerge, fairly than following street maps from executives. Whereas this has created fertile floor for AI analysis, it has additionally unfold the firm’s GPUs and workers skinny, in accordance to a number of sources.
Now, OpenAI’s leaders have given a stern mandate to refocus the firm round just a few key areas.
Considered one of the focus areas is a “tremendous app” that may mix ChatGPT, Codex, and Atlas. OpenAI’s leaders hope that combining these merchandise right into a unified shopper interface will assist the firm flip ChatGPT into a real tremendous assistant. (The Wall Avenue Journal beforehand reported on the super app and OpenAI’s efforts to simplify its choices.)
Earlier than OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022, it was planning to construct an AI agent that would full all types of digital duties for folks. This product, then dubbed the “tremendous assistant,” was meant to deliver the promise of AGI to life, however it has been tougher to construct than OpenAI anticipated, sources say. OpenAI has tried as an alternative to launch agentic options inside ChatGPT, corresponding to Operator and ChatGPT Agent, although adoption has been limited. The corporate is hoping a shopper agent constructed round Codex will resonate extra with ChatGPT customers.
OpenAI is additionally bolstering its enterprise enterprise because it readies itself for the public market. Whereas Anthropic was beforehand a front-runner in the AI coding race, OpenAI’s Codex team has caught up in the final yr. Codex is now a shiny spot for OpenAI, surpassing $1 billion in annualized income in January and persevering with to develop.
Whereas Sora launched with nice fanfare, the product did not fairly match into OpenAI’s new period, and the firm determined its GPUs and researchers have been higher used elsewhere. In a press release to WIRED, an OpenAI spokesperson mentioned, “As we focus and compute demand grows,” the Sora analysis group will work on “world simulation analysis to advance robotics that may assist folks remedy real-world, bodily duties.”
The transfer appears to have blown up the firm’s partnership with Disney, which had beforehand mentioned it could make investments $1 billion in OpenAI. Disney was reportedly blindsided by the decision, and the firm mentioned it now not plans to make investments.
There’s an open query round what OpenAI’s period of focus means for its analysis groups. OpenAI is competing with Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and Meta for a small pool of top-tier expertise. In January, OpenAI’s VP of Analysis, Jerry Tworek, left the firm after struggling to get resources for his next big bet. Whereas many workers seem energized by the firm’s resolution, others may determine to transfer to rival labs if their initiatives get deprioritized.
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