2026 public debut: Sam Altman rules out OpenAI IPO as AI safety fears mount

OpenAI will not go public in 2026 as mounting safety concerns surrounding artificial intelligence force the company to reevaluate its timeline, CEO Sam Altman said in a Fortune interview.

"I actually think that, given everything happening with safety, right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public, and we don't feel pressure on that," Altman told Fortune, effectively putting an end to speculation about a near-term public market debut for the ChatGPT developer.

The decision comes amid heightened scrutiny from US lawmakers following severe warnings from AI researchers, including two former scientists from OpenAI rival Anthropic, who warned that rapidly advancing artificial intelligence could pose catastrophic existential risks to humanity.

The alarm follows high-profile incidents involving autonomous AI agents breaching external systems, triggering widespread resignations among safety researchers and bi-partisan calls in Washington for strict regulatory oversight.

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The New York Times had reported in June that San Francisco-based OpenAI was weighing whether to hold off on a potential trillion-dollar initial public offering until 2027. That caution coincided with a volatile market backdrop, marked by a sharp drop in shares of Elon Musk's SpaceX following a rapid run-up that had pushed its valuation to $1.8 trillion.

When pressed on whether a 2026 listing was officially off the table, Altman confirmed the delay. "I would say not 2026. Yeah, we got a lot of stuff to do, like meeting this moment of what is going to be required for safety and alignment, and how the industry and governments can work together," he said.

Altman also indicated that major AI developers may soon reach a joint agreement to slow down capability advances to manage systemic risks. Earlier on Saturday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei released an essay calling for an industry-wide slowdown.

"We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models," Amodei wrote in a social media post.

Altman publicly backed Amodei's call shortly after on X, writing: "I agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier. This has been a primary topic of discussions we've had at OpenAI in recent weeks."

Despite the growing hesitation across the sector, Anthropic has not halted its own public market plans. The startup is set to begin marketing its IPO as early as mid-October, targeting a launch days before the US midterm elections in November, according to sources familiar with the matter.