Altman apologizes: Disney learned about Sora shutdown hours before the public

OpenAI shut down Sora in March. Sam Altman explained this week how it happened.

Altman appeared on the Mostly Human podcast on April 3rd and said he personally called Disney's new CEO Josh D'Amaro to break the news. D'Amaro responded with 'I get it,' but the shutdown still came as a shock: Disney learned about it just hours before the public announcement.

Sora and Disney had forged an ambitious partnership in December 2025. Disney was set to become Sora's first major content licensing partner, using over 200 iconic characters in AI-generated videos. The deal involved a $1 billion investment and integration of Sora content on Disney+. Then in March, OpenAI killed the whole project.

The reasons: a combination of high operating costs, reportedly over $1 million per day, and declining user engagement after the initial wave of attention.

Altman compared the decision to when OpenAI shelved GPT-3 to focus on something bigger. Sora was not shut down because it failed technically, but because OpenAI needs the resources for what he describes as next generations of automated researchers and companies.

The Sora app closes on April 26th. The API follows on September 24th. Users are urged to export any content they want to keep.

For CIOs tracking the AI landscape, this is a clear reminder: even well-documented partnerships with the world's most famous brands can collapse overnight when strategic priorities shift.