OpenAI announced on March 24th the closure of its AI video generation platform Sora and the termination of its $1 billion partnership agreement with Disney. CEO Sam Altman stated that the company will shift its strategy towards enterprise level productivity tools and coding tools, and the Sora team will turn to world simulation research for long-term development of robotics technology, in preparation for the planned IPO.

OpenAI plans to expand its employee base from 4500 to 8000 by the end of 2026, achieving nearly doubled growth. The new employees will mainly be invested in product development, engineering, research, and sales departments to cope with the increasingly fierce competition in the enterprise AI market.

The 2026 AI funding landscape has shattered all records, with OpenAI leading the pack at $174B+ total funding following its massive $110B February round. xAI secured $20B in January's upsized Series E, while Anthropic reached $69.2B total after its $30B Series G at $380B valuation. February 2026 became the biggest month in venture capital history with $189B global funding, of which $171B went to AI startups. Figure AI ($3.2B+) and Perplexity ($2.6B+) round out the top five, as AI startups captured over 90% of venture funding in the record-breaking month.