OpenAI will not go public in 2026, says Sam Altman amid AI safety conc

OpenAI, one of the world’s most valuable startups, is not planning to go public in 2026, according to its CEO Sam Altman.

Citing safety concerns over rapidly advancing AI systems, Altman said that an IPO now would be ill-advised. “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,” Altman was quoted as saying in an interview with business magazine Fortune.

Altman’s remarks come amid dire warnings and fears of AI-driven extinction of humanity. Recently, two researchers from Anthropic quit their jobs because they believe that there is a 10 per cent chance that “AI could kill all humans” within the next decade. Soon, their Comments sparked a firestorm online with AI doomsday concerns taking centre stage.

When asked about the 10 per cent chance estimate, Altman said he did not know how such an estimate could be made, but warned the ​risk was serious enough that AI companies and governments should act as though it could not be tolerated.

“Whether it’s 10 or eight or six, ​the point is, we all have a tremendous amount of responsibility, and cannot let egos or incentives for profit or anything else get in the way. We need to act such that we are not taking any of those numbers of risk, and I believe we can,” he said.

In June 2026, OpenAI confidentially filed for a US initial public offering (IPO), joining rival Anthropic in a push toward the Stock Market as investors seek exposure to the AI boom. However, OpenAI did not disclose the size or terms of the offering, and said a timeline has not yet been determined

Last month, the company’s chief financial officer (CFO), Sara Friar, reportedly told employees that the company would likely go public in 2027 or even sooner, if “our business continues to inflect.” It closed a funding round in March 2026, raising $110 billion at an $840 billion valuation from a roster of heavyweight backers including SoftBank, Amazon, and Nvidia.

OpenAI’s decision to push one of the most anticipated IPOs in history until At least 2027 underscores mounting concerns about increasingly powerful AI systems beginning to reshape the tech industry’s business plans.

Meanwhile, Anthropic’s own IPO plans seem to be unaffected by safety concerns so far. The Claude-maker is expected to begin marketing its initial public offering in mid-October ​at the earliest and complete the listing days before the US midterm elections in November 2026, as per Reuters.

Even as OpenAI looks to delay its IPO, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Saturday published an essay urging AI companies to slow how quickly they improve their most advanced models.

The essay proposes a three-step plan to slow the Pace Of the frontier AI race, including allowing third-party evaluators to assess AI systems with access comparable to that of employees.

“I continue to believe that AI can enormously improve the quality of human life. My desire to achieve these benefits is undimmed. But the benefits will only be achieved if we build the technology in the right way, and — so long as we use the time we gain well — it is worth taking unusually deliberate care to get it right,” Amodei wrote.

“To be clear, pacing does not mean halting model training or technical progress, but ensuring companies take adequate time to align and safeguard their models, and for third party evaluators to confirm this,” he added.

Many AI industry executives and researchers have welcomed the proposed measures put forth by Amodei in his essay. The list includes Sam Altman and Elon Musk, marking an unusual show of agreement among three fierce rivals.

“I agree with Dario [Amodei] that we need to pace the frontier. This has been a primary topic of discussions we’ve had at OpenAI in recent weeks. Committing to having independent evaluators with employee-like access is a great idea, and we will do the same,” Altman wrote on X on Saturday. “Dario is right,” Musk said, expressing support for the proposed voluntary slowdown.