OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman has confirmed that the company will not go public in 2026 even though confidential paperwork was filed earlier this year. He explained that this is not the right time for a listing because artificial intelligence safety must come before financial markets. Altman said it would be unacceptable to risk even a ten percent chance of catastrophic harm by the end of this decade. He added that staying private allows OpenAI to focus on its mission without pressure from shareholders.
The decision comes as leading voices in the industry, including Altman, Elon Musk of xAI and Dario Amodei of Anthropic, unusually agree that slowing down AI development is necessary to protect humanity. Anthropic is preparing for a massive initial public offering that could surpass SpaceX’s eighty six point two billion dollar record valuation. Nvidia is reportedly in talks to become an anchor investor. OpenAI itself is aiming for a valuation as high as one trillion dollars when it eventually lists.
The debate over AI safety has intensified after an Anthropic researcher resigned warning that advanced systems could potentially kill us all by the end of the decade. Altman suggested that OpenAI may consider an IPO in 2027 or later once safety milestones are achieved. Investors will need to wait as ethics outweigh immediate capital raising.
