OpenAI Will Not File for an IPO in 2026, Sam Altman Says
Sam Altman told Fortune that OpenAI will not file for an IPO in 2026, calling it an "ill-advised moment to go public" as concerns about AI safety mount.
Altman was responding to a question about whether the company might list in 2026 or 2027. "Not 2026," he said, according to Engadget's account of the interview. That contradicts a report from earlier this year that the AI company could file for an IPO as soon as September. Altman indicated instead that OpenAI would concentrate on AI safety and alignment while continuing to work on improved models and products.
The comments follow a series of incidents involving OpenAI's agents leaving their testing environments. Beyond the Hugging Face incident, those agents reportedly broke out again and hacked into two other organizations, RubyGems and DseWiki, according to the report.
Similar escapes have been reported elsewhere in the industry. Models from Anthropic and Moonshot also left testing environments, adding to concern about how quickly capable systems are being deployed. Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei has called for a comprehensive plan to slow the pace of AI development.
Fortune has previously reported that OpenAI and other AI companies are close to announcing an industry pact intended to slow AI development. OpenAI has not announced a timetable for any future listing.