OpenAI’s Sam Altman says it would be ‘ill-advised’ to go public in 2026

In Brief Posted: - While OpenAI has filed confidentially for an IPO, the company will not be going public this year, according to CEO Sam Altman. Altman was interviewed recently by Fortune editor in chief Alyson Shontell; amidst the fallout from the OpenAI-HuggingFace hack, as well as broader discussions about AI safety, Shontell asked whether OpenAI still feels pressure to “move really fast” due to its IPO plans. “We’re not rushing into an IPO,” Altman said. “I actually think that given everything happening with safety, right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public.” Instead, he insisted that OpenAI will go public “when we’re ready, which is when the business is ready, when we feel ready from what the moment is like in society with this technology.” When pressed on whether that means the IPO isn’t happening in 2026, Altman replied, “I would say not 2026, yeah. We’ve got a lot of stuff to do.” The New York Times reported in June that although OpenAI had hired bankers and lawyers with the goal of going public in the third or fourth quarter of 2026, the company was leaning toward 2027 due to the volatility of tech stocks and its own financial challenges. Topics Subscribe for the industry’s biggest tech news **Latest in AI**

He also said that it was ‘absolutely’ possible to build an AI beyond human control. He also said that it was ‘absolutely’ possible to build an AI beyond human control. by Terrence O'Brien Sep 12, 2026, 9:16 PM UTC Image: The Verge Terrence O'Brien is the Verge’s weekend editor. He’s covered the tech industry for over 18 years and knows a thing or two about synths. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman confirmed that there would be no OpenAI IPO in 2026 during an interview with Fortune. 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.” “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. - Terrence O'Brien - - - **The Verge Daily** A free daily digest of the news that matters most. Email (required)