Why OpenAI says it won't IPO in 2026

Sam Altman has, for the first time, put a firm answer on when OpenAI will list on the stock market: not this year. Speaking to Fortune, the OpenAI chief executive said concerns about AI safety make 2026 the wrong moment to go public.

In an interview with Fortune editor-in-chief Alyson Shontell on 11 September, published the next day, Altman ruled out an initial public offering (IPO, when a company first sells shares on a public stock market) in 2026. He said: "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."

Asked whether that meant 2027 instead, Altman said "I would say not 2026," adding there is "a lot of stuff to do" on safety and alignment, and on how the AI industry and governments can work together.

Fortune described this as the first on-the-record confirmation of OpenAI's IPO timing. The company has never officially disclosed a target date, but it confidentially filed for an IPO in June, and chief financial officer Sarah Friar told staff in August that the company would go public in 2027.

Altman also said OpenAI has discussed pausing development once it reaches new capability levels, to give safety work time to catch up, and suggested that leading AI labs may be close to agreeing to slow development together. He said OpenAI wants to preserve its ability to make decisions that might not match investors' short-term interests.

His comments came a day after Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei called on the industry to "pace the frontier", a call Altman said he agreed with. Unlike OpenAI, Anthropic is still expected to pursue its own IPO, reportedly with marketing to investors beginning as early as mid-October.

If you use OpenAI's products, this doesn't change what you can access today. But it does signal that OpenAI sees a gap between the pace investors might want and the pace it feels safety work requires. Altman's remarks suggest the company wants room to slow down releases if needed, rather than face pressure from public shareholders to move faster.

For anyone tracking AI safety, Altman's comments about labs possibly agreeing to pace development together are notable: it would mean companies that normally compete on speed coordinating to hold back.

OpenAI has not set a new IPO date beyond ruling out 2026, and Friar's internal guidance points to 2027. Anthropic, by contrast, appears to be moving ahead with its own listing process in the coming weeks. You can read more in Reuters' report via Investing.com and Fortune's full interview.