OpenAI’s Product and Deal Misfires: Sora and Shopping Fall Short as Investment Shrinks

Propelled by ChatGPT, OpenAI expanded rapidly into video generation, shopping and data centers, but its push across multiple fronts consumed vast amounts of computing power and capital. Although revenue reached $13 billion in 2025, the company continued to lose money. With pressure to pursue an IPO and competition from Anthropic and Google, its product choices have become a key test of financial discipline and the broader AI investment boom.

OpenAI announced in March 2026 that it would shut down Sora, with the app and web service ending on April 26. At its peak, the product cost as much as $15 million a day to operate, while lifetime in-app purchases totaled less than $3 million. OpenAI also removed instant checkout from ChatGPT that month. Nvidia’s previously planned $100 billion investment was scaled back to a possible $30 billion, while no shares had been issued by the end of 2025 under AMD’s agreement to exchange 160 million shares for 6 GW of chips.