Sam Altman: an OpenAI IPO in 2026 would be “ill-advised”

Speaking with Fortune, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman confirmed that the company will not hold an initial public offering in 2026. In his view, there is neither a reason nor any outside pressure to rush onto the stock market.

“We are not racing to an IPO. Honestly, given everything going on around safety, I think right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public. And we don’t feel any pressure on this. We’ve said for a long time that we’ll do it when we’re ready… I’d say not in 2026. We still have a lot to do,” Altman said.

The conversation lasted about 45 minutes and went well beyond the subject of a share offering. Altman touched on the Hugging Face hack, on recursive self-improvement in AI, and — this drew particular attention — on the likelihood of building an artificial intelligence that slips beyond human control.

Asked whether it is possible to build an AI that ends up beyond human control, Altman answered “absolutely.” At the same time, he pledged to take steps to prevent it — up to and including halting the training of models. “There are risks that we do not have the right to take on behalf of all of humanity,” he stressed.

In this way, the OpenAI chief tied the decision to hold off on a near-term IPO specifically to safety questions rather than market conditions. The phrase “when we’re ready” leaves the timing open: Altman named no specific date for a possible offering, saying only that 2026 is definitely ruled out.

Source: The Verge