Altman Says an OpenAI IPO Would Be Ill-Advised in 2026

Axios (Ben Berkowitz and Donica Phifer, 12 September 2026) reported that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company will not go public in 2026, citing safety and alignment work. The comments came in an interview with Fortune editor-in-chief Alyson Shontell.

This is on-record interview guidance on timing. It is not an SEC filing withdrawal, not a cancelled S-1, and not a board resolution published by OpenAI.

"I would say not 2026, yeah. We got a lot of stuff to do," Altman said. He also said, "We're not rushing into an IPO," and that given everything happening with safety, "right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public."

He said 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." On safety, he wants industry and governments to work together and is "happy to be able to do that as a private company."

TechCrunch (Anthony Ha, 12 September 2026) notes earlier reporting that OpenAI had hired bankers and lawyers aiming for the third or fourth quarter of 2026. That earlier plan already leaned toward 2027 on tech-stock volatility and financial challenges.

This is interview guidance, not a formal IPO cancellation. OpenAI has not published a prospectus withdrawal. Those earlier banker timelines already pointed past a clean 2026 window.

Same-week public-markets tape includes Anthropic selecting Nasdaq for a planned listing. Separate OpenAI capital tape includes SoftBank's $11.9 billion loan to keep funding OpenAI.

If you model AI IPO calendars or secondary liquidity, move any OpenAI 2026 listing assumption off the base case and treat Anthropic's Nasdaq venue news as the nearer public-markets signal in this window.