IPO Delayed: Sam Altman Says an OpenAI Going Public in 2026 Would Be ‘Ill-Advised’
Rich DupreySun, September 13, 2026 at 6:08 PM GMT+3 4 min read
Quick Read
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Altman declared a 2026 IPO "ill-advised," prioritizing safety and alignment over what had been a potential $1 trillion public listing.
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Rival Anthropic plans to go public before year-end at a valuation potentially reaching $2.3 trillion, while OpenAI now targets 2027.
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Altman signaled a potential industry pact to slow AI development, as an Anthropic researcher put extinction-level AI odds above 10% within a decade.
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OpenAI is delaying its public offering past 2026. In a September 12 interview with Fortune, Sam Altman said the timing is wrong, the risks are rising, and the industry may soon coordinate to slow itself down.
Altman's Blunt Verdict on 2026 Timing
Asked directly about an offering that had been shaping up as one of the largest in market history, Altman said "right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public" and confirmed "not 2026" when pressed on timing. OpenAI had spent much of the year exploring a listing that could have valued the company at $1 trillion, before pausing the effort in June.
The delay lands as rival Anthropic plans to go public before the end of the year at a valuation some believe could reach $2.3 trillion. On the Pomp Podcast this week, investor Jordi Visser said "Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) is around a $2 trillion asset. So is SpaceX, Anthropic, and I think OpenAI. That's $8 trillion of things that none of them make money."
Safety and Alignment Cited as the Real Reason
Altman tied the pause directly to the technology's trajectory. He said OpenAI needs to focus on "meeting this moment of what is going to be required for safety and alignment, and how the industry and governments can work together" and that "society needs to contend with these models at each level of capability."
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He also flagged the governance problem inside OpenAI's dual non-profit and for-profit structure, saying the company must "make decisions that are not obviously in the interest of our business and our shareholders for the responsibility of fulfilling our mission." Public shareholders would complicate that math.
Industry Pact on Slowing Down
Altman suggested OpenAI and other leading labs "may be close to announcing a pact to slow AI development and collectively address the rapidly increasing safety risks," with internal talk of "tapping the brakes on its most cutting edge AI."
That framing echoes anxieties at Anthropic. Researcher Evan Hubinger said the odds of AI killing all humans are ">10% within the next decade" and that Anthropic "do[es] not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence and [is] not clearly on track to."
What to Watch Next
Altman pointed to 2027 as a more plausible window. Three things matter for investors: whether the safety pact is formally announced, whether Anthropic's IPO proceeds on its reported $2.3 trillion valuation track, and whether capability pauses actually get implemented.
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