OpenAI shut down Sora’s web and mobile apps on April 26, 2026, with the API version following on September 24. Sora reportedly cost close to $1 million a day to run while generating only about $2.1 million in total revenue over its life, and monthly active users fell from roughly a million at launch to under 500,000 by the shutdown announcement. A collapsed licensing deal with Disney and deepfake complaints added pressure as OpenAI sought a cleaner balance sheet ahead of its IPO. ByteDance, Runway and Luma now split the AI video market into three jobs. ByteDance’s Seedance 2.5, launched by its Seed research team on July 31, 2026, through Jimeng AI and Doubao Pro before API access via BytePlus ModelArk, generates native 1080p video up to 30 seconds with audio and accepts as many as 50 reference files. Runway’s Gen-4.5 supports character-consistent generation up to a full minute with native audio and multi-shot sequencing. Luma’s Ray 3.2, released June 9, 2026, exports native 16-bit HDR footage as EXR files in the ACES2065-1 color space.