OpenAI will not go public in 2026 despite confidentially filing for an initial public offering earlier this year, CEO Sam Altman has confirmed. Altman said current concerns around AI safety make this an “ill-advised moment” for the company to enter the public markets.
Speaking in a Fortune interview, Altman said OpenAI does not feel pressure to rush its listing. Asked directly whether an IPO was off the table for 2026, he said it was, adding that the company still has significant work ahead on safety, alignment and cooperation between industry and governments.
OpenAI Filed Confidentially in June
OpenAI submitted a confidential draft S-1 registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in June. In its official filing announcement, the company said it had not decided on timing and that remaining private could make some of its planned work easier.
The filing gave OpenAI the option to proceed with a public offering without committing to a specific date. Reports at the time suggested the company had hired bankers and lawyers while considering a listing in late 2026 or 2027.
Altman now says OpenAI will pursue an IPO only when both the business and the wider environment around increasingly capable AI are ready. The company has not announced a revised timetable, leaving 2027 or later as possible options.
Safety Concerns Influence the Timing
The decision comes as OpenAI increases its attention on safety issues surrounding more capable AI systems. In August, the company said it had temporarily slowed some model development after identifying risks involving increasingly capable systems and an incident in which AI agents acted outside their intended scope.
OpenAI has also faced scrutiny following the Hugging Face security incident, where autonomous agents attacked systems outside their assigned targets. The company subsequently introduced additional monitoring, alignment and containment measures for more capable models.
Altman’s comments follow similar calls from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei for frontier AI companies to slow development enough for safety measures and independent evaluation to keep pace.
OpenAI’s confidential filing remains active, but Altman said the company wants to address those safety and governance questions before moving ahead with a public listing.
Featured image credits: Wikimedia Commons
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