With Sora, OpenAI Casts Shadow Over AI Video Startups

When OpenAI CEO Sam Altman last week posted a series of ultrarealistic and cinematic videos made by Sora, his company’s latest artificial intelligence technology, we imagined alarm bells ringing across the technology industry and, perhaps, Hollywood. Most of all, the videos should put fear in the hearts of at least seven companies in our Generative AI Database that develop AI video generators—and the investors who collectively gave them more than $550 million.

In the wake of the mania that greeted the videos, one investor told us privately that they felt lucky they had passed on a recent fundraising round for a hot AI-generated video startup. Another investor who has funded a young AI video startup said they took solace in the fact that the startup’s strong leaders will make it a good acquisition target, if it comes to that. 

Sora’s videos aim to simulate the physics of the real world, though they aren’t perfect and the model isn’t close to being publicly available yet. (OpenAI has offered Sora to a small number of visual artists, designers, and filmmakers.) Still, the rate of progress in AI video has been astounding, so it can’t be too long before the technology can produce full-fledged films. As venture capitalist Matt Turck half-joked in a post on X, by 2025 consumers may be able to ask AI like Sora to “create a new season of Narcos to watch tonight, but have it take place in Syria with Brad Pitt, Mr Beast and Travis Kelce in the leading roles.”