OpenAI’s IPO wait grows longer as AI safety fears mount

Good morning.

Tech giant OpenAI is poised to be among the largest IPOs—but it’s not going public this year.

Growing concerns about AI safety are contributing to OpenAI’s decision to delay its market debut, with an IPO potentially coming in 2027 or later.

“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,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell in an exclusive interview on Friday.

Altman was pressed on whether the IPO would come in 2026 or 2027.

“I would say not 2026,” he told Shontell.

“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.” The company has long maintained that it is not in a hurry to rush ahead with an IPO, he said.

Altman’s comment is the first on-the-record confirmation that the IPO will not happen in 2026.

OpenAI has not publicly disclosed a target debut date.

The company confidentially filed for a potential IPO in June.

Both OpenAI and rival Anthropic have taken initial steps this year toward becoming public companies .

Last week, however, AI researcher Jacob Coxon, who had worked at both OpenAI and Anthropic, resigned from Anthropic and said on social media that he was leaving the industry over safety concerns.

“The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade,” Coxon wrote on X .

His post was followed by calls to slow the race toward AI .