Reports: OpenAI winding down Sora as Altman focuses on data centers

The Wall Street Journal and The Information report that OpenAI is discontinuing its once viral Sora text-to-video generation app.

Sora debuted late last year and started off scorching hot, but quickly lost steam.

Per The Information report, CEO Sam Altman has told staff he is shifting responsibilities to focus on building data centers. He also will no longer directly oversee OpenAI’s safety and security teams. Altman shared with staff as well that initial development of OpenAI’s next AI model — code-named “Spud” — has been completed.

Exclusive | OpenAI Set to Discontinue Sora Video Platform App

Per The Information report, CEO Sam Altman has told staff he is shifting responsibilities to focus on building data centers. He also will no longer directly oversee OpenAI’s safety and security teams. Altman shared with staff as well that initial development of OpenAI’s next AI model — code-named “Spud” — has been completed.

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Jon Keegan1h

New Mexico jury orders Meta to pay $375 million in child sexual exploitation trial

Meta has been ordered to pay $375 million in civil penalties by a New Mexico jury after the company was found to have violated state consumer protection laws by enabling child sexual exploitation. Meta was accused of failing to protect underage users from adults seeking to harm them, which led to real-world abuse.

Meta has denied the allegations, and spokesperson Andy Stone posted on Threads:

“We respectfully disagree with the verdict and will appeal. We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and are clear about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors or harmful content. We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online.”

Jury orders Meta to pay $375 mln in New Mexico lawsuit over child sexual exploitation, user safety

Meta has denied the allegations, and spokesperson Andy Stone posted on Threads:

“We respectfully disagree with the verdict and will appeal. We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and are clear about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors or harmful content. We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online.”

Jon Keegan4h

Meta and Arm team up to build a new class of data center chips

The AI boom was powered by companies training models using Nvidia GPUs.

But now as the field enters the age of inference, the humble CPU may be reclaiming its place in the spotlight.

Today Meta announced a partnership with Arm Holdings to build a “new class of data center silicon.”

The companies are teaming up to design chips that are custom-made for inference, the computing task that actually processes queries — vital work that companies are looking to optimize as they try to fit more and more computing power in their massive data centers.

The first chip from the partnership is the Arm AGI CPU, which is described as a data center CPU designed for Meta’s family of apps.

Meta’s head of infrastructure, Santosh Janardhan, said in a press release:

“We worked alongside Arm to develop the Arm AGI CPU to deploy an efficient compute platform that significantly improves our data center performance density and supports a multi-generation roadmap for our evolving AI systems.”

Meta Partners With Arm to Develop New Class of Data Center Silicon

The companies are teaming up to design chips that are custom-made for inference, the computing task that actually processes queries — vital work that companies are looking to optimize as they try to fit more and more computing power in their massive data centers.

The first chip from the partnership is the Arm AGI CPU, which is described as a data center CPU designed for Meta’s family of apps.

Meta’s head of infrastructure, Santosh Janardhan, said in a press release:

“We worked alongside Arm to develop the Arm AGI CPU to deploy an efficient compute platform that significantly improves our data center performance density and supports a multi-generation roadmap for our evolving AI systems.”

Jon Keegan

6h

FCC bans foreign-made routers over national security concerns

Following a similar ban on foreign-made drones, the Trump administration’s ban will effectively kneecap the majority of consumer router manufacturers selling in the US marketplace.

Rani Molla7h

With Apple Business, Apple is packaging its ecosystem for the office

Apple today announced its most coherent push yet to turn its ecosystem into a workplace platform. Apple Business, a “new all‑in‑one platform for businesses of all sizes,” bundles device management, email, cloud storage, support, and payments into a single system.

Businesses already rely heavily on iPhones and Macs, but stitching together Apple’s tools has historically required third-party software and IT overhead. Apple is now trying to make that setup more turnkey — a move that could open up new ways to make money through services, support, and payments.

Introducing Apple Business — a new all-in-one platform for businesses of all sizes

Businesses already rely heavily on iPhones and Macs, but stitching together Apple’s tools has historically required third-party software and IT overhead. Apple is now trying to make that setup more turnkey — a move that could open up new ways to make money through services, support, and payments.

Claire Yubin Oh7h

America is officially spending more on building data centers than offices

It’s finally happened: spending on data center construction surpassed offices for the first time at the end of last year. America’s construction spending on data centers reached a record annualized rate of $45 billion in December, crossing paths with declining private office outlays at $44 billion, per US Census Bureau data.

Recently, research from CBRE found that data center capacity under construction actually fell from 6.35 megawatts in 2024 to 5.99 megawatts by the end of 2025 — but the bottleneck doesn’t appear to be demand, but more mundane supply issues, with deal implementation at the local level, including slow permitting and constrained supply chains, seemingly causing the slowdown.

Indeed, considering how hyperscaler clients are trying to secure power capacity, it’s hard to imagine the data center line not expanding its lead in the chart above. Just last week, Meta signed a five-year AI infrastructure deal with Nebius worth up to $27 billion.

And with skyrocketing demand, construction costs are jumping, too — helping construction firms to become the best-performing non-Iran-related segment of the stock market this year, as my colleague Matt Phillips pointed out: Tech giants including Microsoft and Oracle can’t get data centers built fast enough. Construction stocks are ripping on the demand.

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