OpenAI CEO Sam Altman ended a year of feverish Wall Street speculation Saturday in confirming the AI giant will not go public in 2026, claiming it would be “ill-advised” to move forward with an IPO amid heightened fears about artificial intelligence safety and security.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on June 2, 2025 in San Francisco, California.
Altman, who earlier in the day backed a proposal by Anthropic for companies to slow down AI development while waiting for regulations and safety protocols to catch up, said OpenAI’s IPO will not happen in 2026 because the company “has a lot of stuff to do.”
In an interview with Fortune Magazine’s Alyson Shontell, Altman said OpenAI needs to be able to make decisions that are not in the interest of shareholders—including “pausing” rapid development of AI to make “more safety and alignment progress.”
Altman said OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, doesn’t feel “pressure” to go public imminently: “We’ve said it for a long time—we’ll do it when we’re ready.”
