OpenAI will shut Sora's API as Kling turns AI video into real revenue
Kling raised $2.8B after topping RMB850M in quarterly revenue; Sora's closure also erased Disney's planned $1B investment.
By Ryan Merket · Published
Why it matters
AI video's winners are being selected by unit economics and repeat workflows. Launch-day virality proved disposable when every generated clip carried a real compute bill.
OpenAI will switch off Sora's API on September 24th, five months after closing the video generator's app and website. The shutdown ends OpenAI's short run as a supplier of generative video models to developers and completes a retreat from the consumer video product that topped Apple's US App Store shortly after launching.
The money has moved elsewhere. In July, Kling AI, the video-generation unit being separated from Chinese short-video platform Kuaishou, raised $2.8 billion from investors including Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu and BlueFive Capital. The financing valued Kling at roughly $18 billion after the investment.
Kling brought something Sora never publicly demonstrated: substantial direct revenue. Kuaishou reported that Kling generated more than RMB850 million in the second quarter, an increase of over 200% from a year earlier and up from more than RMB650 million in the first quarter. Kling produced over RMB1.5 billion in revenue during the first half of 2026.
Kuaishou co-founder and CEO Cheng Yixiao built the company's original GIF-sharing app in 2011 after engineering roles at Hewlett-Packard and Renren. His latest bet applies Kuaishou's experience in video creation and distribution to a model sold through subscriptions, API usage and contracts with professional customers. Kling added command-line and Model Context Protocol tools this year for automated, batch content production, alongside products aimed at advertising, film, television and e-commerce work.
That mix helps explain why investors were willing to fund Kling separately from Kuaishou's mature social platform. Kuaishou's total second-quarter revenue rose 1.4%, while adjusted net profit fell roughly 30%. Kling is one of the few parts of the group reporting triple-digit growth, giving Cheng a standalone AI asset that can be valued on its own sales trajectory.
Sora won attention and lost the budget
OpenAI released Sora 2 and its social video app on September 30th, 2025. The invitation-only app reached the top of Apple's US App Store within days, turning generated clips, cameos and copyright disputes into a consumer spectacle.
OpenAI announced the shutdown less than six months later. The web and mobile products disappeared on April 26th, and the remaining API access will end on September 24th. OpenAI has not published Sora's revenue or operating costs. An OpenAI spokesperson told WIRED that rising compute demand contributed to the decision, with the Sora research group shifting toward world-simulation work for robotics.
The decision also unwound one of the industry's most ambitious licensing arrangements. In December 2025, Disney agreed to license more than 200 characters from Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars for use in Sora. Disney also planned to invest $1 billion in OpenAI and received warrants for further equity.
After OpenAI decided to close Sora, Disney said it would not proceed with the investment. A top-ranked app and a deal with the world's largest entertainment company were insufficient reasons for OpenAI to keep assigning scarce compute and researchers to consumer video.
Repeatable work pays for the render
Paid intent is the useful dividing line in AI video. Kling serves individual creators, but its growth increasingly comes from professional production, subscriptions and API demand. Each customer arrives with a defined output to produce and a reason to pay for repeated generations.
The same pattern appears in US and European AI video companies built around business workflows. HeyGen said in June that it had passed $200 million in annual recurring revenue, doubling in eight months. Co-founder Joshua Xu, a former Snap engineer, built HeyGen around generated presenters, translation and personalized video for training, marketing and sales.
Synthesia raised $200 million at a $4 billion valuation on January 26th. GV led the round, with participation from Evantic, Hedosophia, NVentures, Accel, Kleiner Perkins, NEA and other existing investors. Co-founder Victor Riparbelli has kept Synthesia focused on training and internal communications since launching it with AI researchers in 2017.
These products lack the feed dynamics that sent Sora to the top of the App Store. They sell replacements for production work that companies already budget for: employee training, localization, sales material, product demonstrations, advertising assets and film shots. A video generated for amusement may produce a share. A video tied to a sales campaign or training program produces an invoice and often another order.
Kling still has to show that its revenue can support the compute bill behind an $18 billion valuation. Kuaishou reports Kling's sales, but does not break out its expenses or profit. The funding gives the unit fresh capital for models, data centers and talent while allowing Kuaishou to keep exposure to the business.
OpenAI made the opposite allocation. Sora's API closure leaves developers with three days to migrate and turns a once-flagship video model into a discontinued dependency. AI video survived the consumer hype cycle. The companies collecting repeat payments survived with it.