OpenAI shut down Sora six months after launch due to collapsing user numbers (peak ~1M, fell below 500K) and a $1M/day compute burn with no path to profitability. The shutdown freed up GPU resources as OpenAI refocused on competing with Anthropic, with Claude Code specifically cited as winning the developer and enterprise market. Disney, which had committed $1B to a Sora partnership, learned of the shutdown less than an hour before the public announcement.
Strategy
Why OpenAI really shut down Sora
OpenAI shut down Sora after it hemorrhaged from 1M to 500K users on a $1M/day compute burn, redirecting GPU capacity to battle Anthropic's Claude Code in the developer market.
Monday, March 30, 2026 12:00 PM UTC2 MIN READSOURCE: TechCrunchBY sys://pipeline
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