OpenAI Won’t Go Public in 2026 Amid AI Safety Concerns, Sam Altman Says

OpenAI will not pursue an initial public offering (IPO) in 2026, CEO Sam Altman said in an interview pointing to concerns over the safety risks associated with artificial intelligence.

“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, OpenAI’s CEO, said in an interview.

Growing numbers of US lawmakers are calling for new rules to govern AI systems after dire warnings from two researchers from OpenAI rival Anthropic that rapidly progressing artificial intelligence could lead to the extinction of the human race ‌in the not-too-distant future.

The warnings come amid growing concerns over AI safety, following incidents in which AI agents reportedly went rogue while attempting to hack external systems, as well as the departure of AI safety researchers from companies over concerns about the technology’s risks. Lawmakers from both the Democratic and Republican parties have also expressed alarm and called for stronger action.

As per report, in June that OpenAI was considering delaying a potentially trillion-dollar initial public offering (IPO) until 2027. The report came as shares in Elon Musk’s SpaceX were falling after a surge that had pushed the company’s valuation to $1.8 trillion.

Asked by a news source whether an OpenAI IPO in 2026 was now off the table, CEO Sam Altman said, “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.”

Altman also suggested that OpenAI and other leading AI companies may be close to announcing an agreement to slow AI development and work together to address safety risks, as per news source.

Dario Amodei, Anthropic’s CEO urged AI companies to take a more deliberate approach to development.

“We must slow the ‌pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models,” Amodei wrote in an essay shared on social media.

Altman later posted that he agreed with the sentiment.

“I agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier,” Altman wrote in a response to Amodei’s post on the X platform. “This has been a primary topic of discussions we’ve had at OpenAI in recent weeks.”

Despite the growing focus on AI safety, Anthropic’s IPO plans remain on track. People familiar with the matter told a news source this month that the company could begin marketing its IPO as early as mid-October, with the listing potentially taking place days before the US midterm elections in November.