Sam Altman Signals OpenAI Could Wait Until 2027 for an IPO

Quick Read

• Sam Altman said an OpenAI public offering in 2026 would be ill-advised, placing safety, alignment and governance ahead of a listing that could have valued the company at $1 trillion.

• Rival Anthropic plans to go public before year-end at a valuation that could reach $2.3 trillion, while OpenAI now appears to be looking toward 2027.

• Altman said leading AI labs may be close to coordinating a slowdown in frontier-model development, amid warnings from Anthropic researcher Evan Hubinger about catastrophic risks.

OpenAI has moved any potential public offering beyond 2026. In a September 12 interview with Fortune, Sam Altman said the timing was wrong, the risks were increasing and the industry may soon coordinate to slow the pace of AI development.

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Why OpenAI Is Reconsidering a 2026 Listing

When asked directly about a public offering that had been developing into 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 spent much of the year evaluating a listing that could have valued the company at $1 trillion before pausing the effort in June.

The decision comes as rival Anthropic plans to go public before the end of the year at a valuation that some believe could reach $2.3 trillion. On this week’s Pomp Podcast, 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 Governance Take Priority

Altman linked the pause to the rapid trajectory of AI. He said OpenAI must 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” as society learns to manage models at every level of capability.

He also raised concerns about the governance challenges created by OpenAI’s dual nonprofit and for-profit structure. The company, he said, must be able to “make decisions that are not obviously in the interest of our business and our shareholders for the responsibility of fulfilling our mission.” A public listing could make that task more difficult.

Labs Could Coordinate an AI Development Pause

Altman suggested that OpenAI and other leading laboratories “may be close to announcing a pact to slow AI development and collectively address the rapidly increasing safety risks.” He also referenced internal discussions about “tapping the brakes on its most cutting edge AI.”

Those concerns mirror anxieties expressed at Anthropic. Researcher Evan Hubinger said the probability of AI causing human extinction was “>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 Comes Next

Altman pointed to 2027 as a more plausible window for an OpenAI offering. Investors will watch three developments: whether a safety pact is formally announced, whether Anthropic’s IPO advances on its reported valuation track and whether any capability pauses are actually implemented.

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