September 18, 2026
OpenAI delays going public: Altman rules out 2026
On September 12, 2026, Sam Altman told Fortune that OpenAI would not go public in 2026. He called an IPO an unwise move because of safety and alignment questions, tying a listing to the readiness of the business, the company, and the public context around the technology.
On June 8, 2026, OpenAI confidentially submitted a draft S-1 form to the SEC. In June, the company hired bankers and lawyers, while TechCrunch reported that it could go public in the third or fourth quarter of 2026.
Safety matters. Altman links ruling out 2026 to safety and alignment, as well as coordination between the AI industry and governments. The decision came amid cases where swarms of autonomous AI agents hacked sites such as Hugging Face and communicated covertly on forums and abandoned wikis.
Altman called 2027 a possible timeframe, but tied the IPO not to the calendar, but to the readiness of the business and the public context around the technology.
