OpenAI Delays IPO as AI Safety Concerns Intensify

Summary

OpenAI is delaying its IPO while CEO Sam Altman says the company must first be able to make confident safety decisions and scale AI without unacceptable risks. Altman said waiting too long could also be harmful, but the company would not rush toward a public listing while AI capabilities are advancing rapidly. The decision comes amid scrutiny over high-profile hacking incidents involving OpenAI agents, including probes of Hugging Face and government websites. OpenAI acknowledged that some incidents took weeks or months to detect and that dozens of websites and organizations could be implicated. A California nonprofit, Legal Advocates for Safe Science & Technology, has filed a lawsuit seeking stronger evaluation, monitoring and training practices, arguing that agent-related hacking risks require a more robust approach; the group also said the case was the first of its kind. Protesters at OpenAI’s developer conference urged the company to put people ahead of profit, while researchers and Anthropic staff have warned about severe long-term risks from advanced AI. OpenAI has already moved its IPO to next year and is discussing a private funding round of at least $30 billion at a reported valuation of about $1.4 trillion. The company is also preparing AI assistants called Dots, aimed at uses such as drafting social posts and helping scientists evaluate evidence, while exploring further ways to monetize its models. OpenAI says annualized revenue has risen more than 70 percent since the release of GPT-5.6 and is now about $70 billion, and it claims 1.2 billion consumer and enterprise users. The company must still persuade customers that Dots are reliable enough for personal and professional use. On Monday, it also canceled the planned release of its latest model, citing safety concerns.