By Zach Mink
Publication Date: 2026-03-31 09:00:00
Good morning, {{ first_name | AI enthusiasts }}. OpenAI’s Sora shutdown caught the AI video world off guard last week. Disney, it turns out, was blindsided even harder — learning the product was dead less than an hour before everyone else did.
A report with details including a $1M-a-day burn rate, a Sora enterprise pilot in progress, compute crunches, and more just shed new light on the AI leader’s sudden shift away from its once-viral platform.
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OPENAI
Image source: Reve / The Rundown
The Rundown: A WSJ investigation just revealed the behind-the-scenes chaos of OpenAI Sora video generator shutdown, including a $1M daily burn rate, a blindsided Disney, and the internal code-named model that required Sora’s compute budget.
The details:
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Sora was reportedly burning “roughly a million dollars a day” and using significant compute, with Sora 3 training set to start just as it was axed.
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The WSJ said Disney learned about the shutdown “less than an hour” before the announcement, with the relationship now “effectively dormant”.
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The freed-up chips went to “Spud,” a model targeting coding and enterprise in response to Anthropic’s powerful moves in the sector.
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An enterprise version of Sora was already in pilot with Disney for marketing and VFX…
