OpenAI will not go public this year, with CEO Sam Altman confirming the highly anticipated listing is off the table for 2026.
Altman made the remarks during an interview with Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell, addressing questions about whether the company still feels pressure to move quickly due to its IPO plans.
“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 told Shontell directly.
He added that OpenAI will go public when both the business and the broader societal moment around artificial intelligence are ready to support such a move.
When asked whether 2026 is being pushed in favor of 2027, Altman said, “I would say not 2026. Yeah, 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.”
The decision delays one of the most anticipated public listings in financial history until at least 2027, signaling that AI safety concerns are now actively reshaping business strategy at the highest levels.
OpenAI CFO Sara Friar told employees last month that the company would likely go public in 2027 or even sooner if “our business continues to inflect,” suggesting some internal optimism remains about the timeline.
The New York Times reported in June that OpenAI was already leaning toward delaying its IPO, which could value the company at $1 trillion, partly influenced by the mixed performance of the SpaceX IPO that raised $85 billion for Elon Musk’s rocket and AI company.
Altman’s remarks also came on the same day Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay urging AI companies to slow improvements to their most advanced models, with Altman and Elon Musk both backing the proposal on social media in an unusual show of agreement among fierce rivals.
The timing of Altman’s comments carries added weight following the release of GPT-6 Astra, the first OpenAI model classified at the Critical cybersecurity capability level under the company’s Preparedness Framework, which required delayed development and stronger protections against cyber misuse.
A publicly traded company faces constant pressure from Wall Street to move quickly and produce returns, making the freedom to invest in safety research and government relations significantly harder to justify to shareholders.
By remaining private, OpenAI retains the ability to make costly long-term safety decisions without having to answer to a broader base of public investors demanding faster results.
Altman stopped short of committing to a 2027 listing, keeping his position deliberately narrow: 2026 is no longer viable, and the company intends to preserve its capacity to prioritize safety over short-term financial outcomes.
