Sam Altman says OpenAI going public in 2026 would be ‘ill-advised’

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said an OpenAI IPO in 2026 would be "ill-advised," citing safety concerns in a 45-minute interview with Fortune. Altman said "we're not rushing into an IPO" and that the company feels no pressure, adding "I would say not 2026. We've got a lot of stuff to do." Altman also said it was "absolutely" possible to build an AI beyond human control, vowing to prevent it even if that meant pausing training, because "there are risks we should not be able to incur on behalf of humanity.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman confirmed that there would be no OpenAI IPO in 2026 during an interview https://fortune.com/2026/09/12/sam-altman-openai-ipo-delay-ill-advised-moment-safety-concerns/ with Fortune https://youtu.be/2my-NU6LuCM . Over the course of 45 minutes, Altman discussed a variety of subjects including the Hugging Face hacking incident, recursive self-improvement, and the possibility of building an AI that was beyond human control. On the latter, he said it was “absolutely” possible, but vowed to take actions to prevent that from happening, even if it meant pausing training, adding that “there are risks we should not be able to incur on behalf of humanity.” Sam Altman says OpenAI going public in 2026 would be ‘ill-advised’ He also said that it was ‘absolutely’ possible to build an AI beyond human control. “We’re not rushing into an IPO. I actually think that, given everything happening with safety, this would be, right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public. And we don’t feel pressure on that. We’ve said for a long time, we’ll do it when we’re ready… I would say not 2026. We’ve got a lot of stuff to do.” Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.