OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and xAI chief Elon Musk. Mr Amodei has called for AI companies to slow the development of increasingly powerful models, a position later backed by Mr Altman and Mr Musk. AFPShow caption: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and xAI ch…The ChatGPT maker is prioritising safety as concerns grow over the pace of AI developmentThe NationalSeptember 13, 2026OpenAI will not pursue an initial public offering this year as chief executive Sam Altman says the company is prioritising artificial intelligence safety and alignment work over a potential listing.“It would be an ill-advised moment to go public”, given the safety challenges facing AI, Mr Altman told business magazine Fortune, adding that OpenAI does not feel pressure to list in 2026.The comments come as governments and lawmakers face growing pressure to impose safeguards on rapidly advancing AI systems, following warnings from researchers about the potential risks posed by increasingly capable models.Mr Altman said even a relatively small chance of AI causing human extinction would be unacceptable, although he questioned how such a probability could be calculated.“Whether it’s 10 or eight or six, the point is, we all have a tremendous amount of responsibility,” he said. Companies and governments must act in a way that does not tolerate such risks, he added.OpenAI had been considering a potentially trillion-dollar IPO, with a listing initially discussed for 2026. The company is now likely to push that timeline into 2027.“We got a lot of stuff to do, like meeting this moment of what is going to be required for safety and alignment, and how the industry and governments can work together,” Mr Altman said.He also suggested that OpenAI and other leading AI companies could be close to announcing an agreement to work together on AI safety and potentially slow the pace of development.The comments followed a call from Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei for AI companies to take a more deliberate approach to advancing their technology.“We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models,” Mr Amodei wrote on X on Saturday.Mr Altman subsequently said he agreed with the sentiment, writing that OpenAI needed to “pace the frontier” and that the issue had been a major topic of internal discussions in recent weeks.The safety concerns have not deterred Anthropic from its own plans to go public. The company is expected to begin marketing its IPO as early as mid-October and could complete its listing before the US midterm elections in November, according to people familiar with the matter.OpenAI’s potential listing would rank among the largest in history and could give the company access to substantial capital to fund the enormous computing and infrastructure costs associated with developing increasingly powerful AI models.Updated: September 13, 2026, 5:27 AM