OpenAI kicks off 12 days of 'shipmas' with Sora and reasoning models

OpenAI is wrapping up the year by borrowing a classic holiday tradition and giving it a high-speed tech twist.

Speaking at The New York Times DealBook conference, CEO Sam Altman confirmed that OpenAI is kicking off a 12-day event dubbed shipmas on December 5th. The company plans to ship a new feature, product, or live demo every single day for nearly two straight weeks.

The shipmas calendar

OpenAI staff have been openly hyping the rollout on social media. When one staffer claimed OpenAI was unbelievably back, Sora lead Bill Peebles chimed in with a blunt confirmation: Correct.

According to sources speaking to The Verge, the marquee drop will be Sora, OpenAI's long-delayed text-to-video generator. The company also plans to release a new reasoning model during the marathon.

ChatGPT might get a festive touch as well. Users have already spotted code pointing to a Santa-inspired voice, complete with a snowflake replacing the usual voice icon.

Pressure from artists and Google

Getting Sora out the door fulfills a timeline set back in March, when former CTO Mira Murati told The Wall Street Journal that it would arrive before the end of the year.

It also comes at a tense moment. Just weeks ago, a group of artists who were part of Sora's invite-only research preview leaked the model to protest being used as unpaid R&D and PR for the startup.

Meanwhile, Google isn't waiting around. Just ahead of shipmas, Google made its own generative video model, Veo, available in private preview on Vertex AI, specifically targeting enterprise content pipelines.

Why it matters

For everyday users and video creators, this is the moment of truth. Sora blew everyone away in demos nine months ago, but we will finally see what it actually costs, how fast it renders, and how much control users actually get.

On an industry level, OpenAI is seizing back the hype machine. With open-source alternatives closing the gap and Google pushing hard on enterprise video, a 12-day barrage ensures OpenAI dominates the tech conversation all the way into 2025.

We think the advent calendar marketing format is clever for keeping sustained buzz, but it carries real risk. Staging 12 consecutive drops sets sky-high expectations, and if half of them turn out to be minor UI tweaks like a festive voice toggle, the holiday cheer could quickly turn into frustration.