Altman rules out an OpenAI IPO in 2026, calling it 'ill-advised' amid safety fallout

OpenAI will not go public this year, CEO Sam Altman said in an interview with Fortune editor in chief Alyson Shontell. The company has filed confidentially for an initial public offering, but Altman said 'We're not rushing into an IPO' and added, 'given everything happening with safety, right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public.' Asked directly whether that meant no listing in 2026, he replied, 'I would say not 2026, yeah. We've got a lot of stuff to do.' He said OpenAI will list when the business is ready and when the company feels ready given the moment in society with this technology. The New York Times reported in June that OpenAI had hired bankers and lawyers with the goal of listing in the third or fourth quarter of 2026 but was leaning toward 2027 because of volatile tech stocks and its own financial challenges. The 45-minute conversation also covered the Hugging Face hacking incident, recursive self-improvement, and whether an AI beyond human control could be built. Altman said that was 'absolutely' possible. The decision matters for investors and employees expecting a near-term liquidity event, and it lands the same day Anthropic's CEO called for a slower pace of capability development and Nvidia was reported to be negotiating an anchor stake in Anthropic's own listing.