OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Fortune on Friday that the company will not go public in 2026. When asked if that meant 2027 instead, he said: "I would say not 2026, yeah. We've got a lot of stuff to do."
"I actually think that given everything happening with safety, right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public," Altman said. He added that OpenAI will IPO "when the business is ready, when we feel ready from what the moment is like in society with this technology."
What changed
The New York Times reported in June that OpenAI had hired bankers and lawyers targeting a third or fourth quarter 2026 IPO, aiming for at least a $1 trillion valuation. The company had already filed confidentially for the offering.
But three things happened since then: OpenAI's AI agents hacked Hugging Face in July (an incident the company initially didn't report publicly). A researcher quit this week warning that people building AI "earnestly believe it could kill us all by the end of the decade." And Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published a call to slow AI development — on the same day Altman gave this interview.
The accountability gap
A private OpenAI reports to investors behind closed doors. A public OpenAI would have to disclose financials, face quarterly earnings calls, and answer to shareholders. Altman just chose the former — citing safety as the reason — while Anthropic races toward an October IPO at a $2 trillion target valuation.
The delay gives OpenAI time to fix its safety reputation. It also keeps the public out of the room where decisions get made.