OpenAI rules out going public in 2026 due to AI security risks

OpenAI — the company that owns the popular artificial intelligence application ChatGPT — will not go public in 2026, its CEO, Sam Altman, said in an interview with Fortune magazine, in which he alleged that security concerns related to artificial intelligence make a 10% risk that AI could cause the extinction of humanity before the end of the decade “unacceptable.”

The stock market debut of OpenAI was the big event that Wall Street was expecting for the second half of the year. The target valuation that Altman's company could reach was more than one trillion dollars (about 860,000 million euros, at the current exchange rate), which would have placed it as the second largest IPO in US history, only surpassed by Space X, in June of this year, which reached two trillion dollars.

Altman's decision had already been advanced to the staff in August by the financial director, Sarah Friar, but it is the first time that the head of OpenAI justifies the decision by expressly alluding to the issue of the threats of uncontrolled AI.

“Given everything that's going on security-wise, right now would not be a good time to go public, and we don't feel any pressure to do so,” Altman told Fortune editor-in-chief Alyson Shontell.

These statements come as more and more US lawmakers are calling for new rules to govern artificial intelligence systems, following dire warnings from two researchers at OpenAI's rival Anthropic that the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence could lead to the extinction of the human race in the not-too-distant future. Google's AI leader, Demis Hassabis, has also called for slowing down AI development “out of caution.”

Asked about the 10% chance of an extinction of humanity caused by uncontrolled AI, Altman responded that he did not know how such an estimate could be made, but warned that the risk was serious enough for AI companies and governments to act as if it were intolerable. “Whether it's 10%, 8% or 6%, the bottom line is that we all have a huge responsibility and we can't let ego, profit motive or anything else get in the way,” Altman added.