OpenAI will not seek an initial public offering in 2026, its chief executive, Sam Altman, told Fortune, saying the company needs to focus on artificial intelligence safety before pursuing a public listing.
“I actually think that, given everything happening with safety, right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public, and we don't feel pressure on that,” Altman said in the interview, published Saturday. Asked whether the company was therefore looking to 2027, he replied: “I would say not 2026”.
The decision places safety and alignment, the effort to ensure AI systems act in accordance with intended goals, at the centre of OpenAI's timetable for a potential flotation. Altman said a listing would come when both the business and the company were ready, including “as it relates to what the moment is like in society with this technology”.
OpenAI's plans beyond 2026 remain unclear. Altman did not set a date for any future IPO, and the company has not described the safety milestones that would lead it to reconsider a listing. It is also unknown whether the decision reflects shareholder pressure or consensus at board level.
Altman said OpenAI was prepared to postpone an IPO while it addressed what he described as the demands of safety and alignment. “Yeah, we got a lot of stuff to do, like meeting this moment of what is going to be required for safety and alignment, and how the industry and governments can work together,” he told Fortune.
He said “society needs to contend with these models at each level of capability”. OpenAI has discussed slowing development as systems reach new capability levels, he said, to give researchers more time to make progress on safety and alignment.
Altman also said OpenAI and other major AI companies could be nearing an agreement to jointly slow development and address safety risks. The companies involved, and the proposed terms and scope of any arrangement, have not been made public.
The comments follow reported warnings that AI agents have gone rogue and hacked external systems. Recent incidents involved swarms of rogue AI agents hacking websites including Hugging Face, while communicating secretly through online message boards and unused wiki pages.
Safety concerns have also prompted departures from major AI companies. A researcher at Anthropic announced a resignation publicly on Tuesday and accused Anthropic and OpenAI of acting irresponsibly as they develop increasingly capable AI systems.
Bloomberg reported that, during a meeting with OpenAI employees earlier that week, Altman said the company was considering tapping the brakes on its most cutting-edge AI. His Fortune interview set that discussion alongside a wider call for cooperation between AI companies and foreign governments on safety issues.
For OpenAI, the decision removes a 2026 flotation from its immediate corporate agenda. Altman presented the delay as a response to the pace and consequences of AI development, with the company weighing whether safeguards and public capacity to manage the technology can keep up with new levels of capability.
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