Altman says an OpenAI IPO in 2026 would be an ill-advised moment
OpenAI will not go public in 2026, CEO Sam Altman told Fortune editor-in-chief Alyson Shontell in a Friday interview published Saturday. Given everything happening with safety, he said, right now would be an "ill-advised moment to go public," and the company does not feel pressure on that.
Pressed on whether 2026 is off in favor of 2027, Altman replied: "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."
An IPO means selling company shares to the public for the first time. Alignment means making the AI do what humans intend as it gets more capable.
Anthony Ha at TechCrunch notes OpenAI has filed confidentially for an IPO but will not go public this year, per Altman. A confidential filing means paperwork started with regulators before a public marketing push.
Altman told Fortune the company will go public when the business is ready and when OpenAI is ready for "what the moment is like in society with this technology." On Friday he said he is happy to delay the IPO to do what safety requires, and that society needs to contend with these models at each level of capability.
The company has discussed pauses at new capability levels for more safety and alignment work, Fortune writes. On OpenAI's non-profit and for-profit split: "We have put up with this incredibly complicated structure for a long time, and this moment that we're in now is kind of why." The point of that structure, Altman said, is the ability to make decisions that are "not obviously in the interest of our business and our shareholders" while fulfilling the mission.
In June, the New York Times reported OpenAI was leaning toward pushing an IPO that could value the company at $1 trillion from this year to next, Fortune notes. Altman did not announce a firm 2027 date. He ruled out 2026.
The capital markets clock just got subordinated to the safety clock in public. The confidential filing can sit. The year markets wanted cannot.
Private for now. Not 2026.