Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, told Fortune in an interview released Saturday that the company will not go public this year because it has substantial work to do on AI safety and alignment.
Altman said the timing for an initial public offering would be inappropriate right now: “Right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public,” he said. He added, “I would say not 2026, yeah. We got a lot of stuff to do,” in his conversation with Fortune editor-in-chief Alyson Shontell.
Altman emphasized that the immediate priority is meeting the requirements for safety and alignment, and figuring out how industry and governments can collaborate. “Meeting this moment of what is going to be required for safety and alignment, and how the industry and governments can work together, I'm happy to be able to do that as a private company,” he said.
Why this matters
His remarks arrive amid growing concern about catastrophic AI scenarios. The anxiety has increased after an employee at Anthropic resigned and issued a stark warning about AI capabilities. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei also warned on Saturday that AI development needs to be slowed.
Market impact and implications
Markets had anticipated major IPOs from both OpenAI and Anthropic this year. Altman’s decision pushes those expectations back and raises questions for investors: until safety and regulatory matters are addressed, investors may need to wait.
Altman summarized a guiding principle: “I think a key principle that we should all agree on is that we cannot take actions that would risk losing control of the future to AI,” suggesting that concerns about loss of control are shaping the company’s timeline.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with new information as it became available.
