Altman said OpenAI did not feel pressure to proceed with a flotation and indicated that safety and alignment work should take priority over the demands that would come with public-market ownership. “Given everything happening with safety, right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public,” he told Fortune in an interview published on Saturday.
Asked directly whether an IPO could still happen in 2026, Altman said, “I would say not 2026.” He did not commit to a specific date for a listing, leaving the timing dependent on progress in managing risks from increasingly capable AI systems and on broader co-operation between developers and governments.
The statement marks a change in the immediate timetable surrounding one of the technology sector’s most closely watched potential flotations. OpenAI disclosed in June that it had confidentially submitted paperwork for an IPO to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, a step that allowed it to begin preparations without immediately publishing a registration statement.
Confidential filing does not oblige a company to complete an offering, and the timetable can be changed or abandoned before a public registration statement is issued, subject to market considerations.
The company’s financial position gives it room to delay. OpenAI said in March that it had closed a funding round with $122 billion in committed capital at a post-money valuation of $852 billion. A month earlier, it announced $110 billion in new investment commitments from SoftBank, Nvidia and Amazon at a $730 billion pre-money valuation, alongside expanded computing and distribution partnerships.
Altman’s decision comes as leaders of major AI laboratories have intensified discussion about whether development should slow while safeguards catch up with rapidly advancing models. Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei has called for stronger safety measures and greater co-ordination among frontier AI companies, while Altman has signalled support for collective action.
Altman said he expected leading developers to work together on a safety agreement, though he stopped short of announcing details. He said private discussions should eventually be shared jointly and suggested that companies could need to moderate the pace of development if safety systems were unable to keep up with model capabilities.
His comments also underscored the tension between OpenAI’s capital requirements and its governance structure. The company reorganised in October 2025 so that its commercial arm became OpenAI Group PBC, a public benefit corporation, while the OpenAI Foundation retained control. The structure is intended to preserve the organisation’s stated mission while allowing conventional equity ownership and large-scale fundraising.
A public listing would expose OpenAI to greater disclosure requirements, investor scrutiny and the pressure of quarterly financial expectations. Altman has previously expressed little enthusiasm for serving as chief executive of a listed company, while acknowledging that public markets could eventually provide access to additional capital.
OpenAI’s spending requirements remain substantial because frontier model development depends on vast computing infrastructure, data-centre capacity and specialised chips. The company has repeatedly said that access to compute and capital is central to expanding its products and supporting growing demand from consumers, developers and businesses.
The safety debate has become more prominent as AI systems gain greater autonomy and are increasingly deployed as agents capable of carrying out multi-step tasks. Researchers and executives have raised concerns about models acting in unintended ways, the difficulty of monitoring advanced systems and the possibility that future AI could exceed existing control mechanisms.
Altman rejected attempts to assign a precise probability to catastrophic AI outcomes, but said even a meaningful chance of losing control would be unacceptable and should be treated seriously by companies and governments. He said developers should be prepared to halt or slow work if they concluded that powerful systems could not be built safely.
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