Disney‘s much heralded $1 billion investment in OpenAI is over as the Sam Altman-led tech giant will be shuttering its standalone Sora text-to-video app.
“The deal is not moving forward,” an insider tells Deadline of the agreement then-House of Mouse CEO Bob Iger reached last year with Altman.
It is unclear how much of the $1 billion Disney had handed over to the IPO-inclined OpenAI and when and how they would be getting the money back — if at all. It looks dicey that the AI start-up will continue to have access to license 250 Disney characters, which they were set to pay the Burbank-based media giant for.
Right now, as the increasingly consumer-facing OpenAI looks to move to a mega-app, Sora is still functioning – with Disney characters available.
The big bucks injection late last year from Disney looked to reset the IP battle between artificial intelligence and Hollywood by permitting iconic characters from Frozen, Star Wars and the Marvel multiverse to be used on the generative AI video app. The three-year deal with OpenAI was supposed to make the leap to hyperspace this spring, Iger and other Disney brass boasted on a February earnings call.
Today, that all went in the digital trash, as OpenAI said it was pulling the plug on Sora.
“We’re saying goodbye to Sora,” the company declared online.
“To everyone who created with Sora, shared it, and built community around it: thank you,” OpenAI added, reducing its so-called game changer to ” What you made with Sora mattered, and we know this news is disappointing. We’ll share more soon, including timelines for the app and API and details on preserving your work.”
Officially, the now Josh D’Amaro-run Disney on Tuesday took a turn-the-other-cheek approach to the Sora news.
“As the nascent AI field advances rapidly, we respect OpenAI’s decision to exit the video generation business and to shift its priorities elsewhere,” a company spokesperson said after OpenAI dropped its news. “We appreciate the constructive collaboration between our teams and what we learned from it, and we will continue to engage with AI platforms to find new ways to meet fans where they are while responsibly embracing new technologies that respect IP and the rights of creators.”