Sam Altman says OpenAI won't file for IPO this year

OpenAI's CEO called it an “ill-advised moment to go public” in an interview with Fortune.

As OpenAI's Hugging Face incident has brought discussions about AI safety to the forefront, the company's CEO has clarified that it will not be looking to file for an initial public offering in 2026. In an interview with Fortune, Sam Altman said that "given everything happening with safety, right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public."

In response to a question about OpenAI going public in 2026 or 2027, Altman said "not 2026," contradicting a report from earlier this year that the AI giant would file for an IPO as soon as September. Instead, Altman suggested that OpenAI will be focusing on AI safety and alignment, while still being interested in making improved models and products. Beyond the Hugging Face incident, OpenAI's agents reportedly once again broke out of testing environments to hack into two other organizations, RubyGems and DseWiki.

Along with OpenAI's agents circumventing its restrictions, other companies including Anthropic and Moonshot also saw their AI models also escape testing environments. These incidents have led to increased concern about AI safety, with Anthropic's CEO, Dario Amodei, calling for a comprehensive plan to slow down the pace of AI development. Fortune also previously reported that OpenAI and other AI companies are almost ready to announce an industry pact to slow down AI development.