Sam Altman tells Fortune OpenAI will not go public in 2026

OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman has stated in an interview with Fortune that the company will not go public in 2026 due to safety concerns surrounding artificial intelligence. Altman emphasized that the current moment is not suitable for an initial public offering (IPO) and expressed no pressure to go public. The company has not announced an official date for its IPO, but both OpenAI and its rival Anthropic have been targeting public listings with valuations close to $1 trillion.

In June, the New York Times reported that OpenAI was considering delaying its IPO until the following year. Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei recently called for AI companies to slow down the development of powerful models, warning that progress should be made with caution. Altman and Elon Musk, co-founder of xAI, agreed with Amodei's assessment.

The comments followed the departure of AI researcher Jacob Coxon, who left OpenAI to join Anthropic amid safety concerns.