OpenAI Pauses IPO Plans Amid AI Safety Worries

The AI startup’s initial public offering (IPO) will not take place in 2026, CEO Sam Altman said in an interview with Fortune on Friday (Sept. 11), saying that OpenAI has long insisted it is in no rush to list.

“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 said.

He added that the IPO will happen when the business is ready and when OpenAI is prepared as it relates to “what the moment is like in society with this technology.”

Pressed on whether this means an IPO could come in 2027, Altman told Fortune, “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.”

OpenAI’s IPO, when it comes, could be one of the largest public offerings ever. Rival Anthropic is also planning to go public, an offering that could value the company at a historic $2 trillion.

As Fortune noted, Altman’s comments come amid increasing concerns about AI safety following incidents where swarms of rogue AI agents have hacked websites, while secretly communicating with each other on online message boards and vacant wiki pages.