Altman Explains Sora Shutdown: 'Something Very Big Is About to Happen' With Next-Gen Agents, Pivots All Compute

Variety·high signal

Sam Altman revealed OpenAI is shutting down Sora (app offline April 26, API September 24) to redirect compute toward 'next generation automated researchers and companies.' Sora was burning ~$1M/day with users dropping from 1M to under 500K. Disney's $1B investment pledge collapsed — no money changed hands — and Disney learned of the shutdown less than an hour before the public announcement. Altman's quote ('I did not expect 3 or 6 months ago to be at this point we're at now') signals OpenAI sees an imminent capability leap in agentic AI worth sacrificing their entire video product line. 345 upvotes, 78 comments on r/singularity.