OpenAI IPO: Pushed to Early 2027, With No Date Until Altman Can Make 'Confident Safety Claims'

OpenAI's IPO has been pushed off until early 2027 at the earliest, and no date is set: Sam Altman now says the company will not list until it can make "confident safety claims" about its models.

OpenAI confidentially submitted a draft S-1 in June 2026, and for a few months a September 2026 debut looked possible. Since August, every statement from the company has pushed the other way. This page lists them in order, with the source for each, alongside the valuation and revenue numbers an IPO would be priced on. For the full round-by-round history, see OpenAI's valuation and funding history.

OpenAI IPO: when is it happening?

The OpenAI IPO is not happening in 2026: the company's listing "has been pushed off until early 2027," TechCrunch reported on October 8, 2026, and Sam Altman has since tied the timing to safety rather than to a calendar date. Here is how the timeline moved.

Sources linked in the sections below; the June 8 notice is on openai.com.

Why did OpenAI delay its IPO?

Altman gave safety as the reason. "I actually think that, given everything happening with safety, right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public," he told Fortune on September 12, 2026, adding that OpenAI does not "feel pressure" on 2027 timing. At DevDay, he said "we have got to be able to make confident safety claims" before an IPO, Gizmodo reported, which removed the implied 2027 target without naming a new one.

That shift came weeks after CFO Sarah Friar told an all-hands that OpenAI "will be a public company in 2027," possibly sooner if growth continued, and that "the IPO is not a finish line, it is a milestone, another fundraise," The Next Web reported in August 2026. She also said OpenAI is "running our own race" when asked about Anthropic listing first.

What will OpenAI be valued at?

OpenAI's last priced round raised $122 billion at an $852 billion valuation in March 2026 and was expected at the time to be its final private raise, TechCrunch noted on September 29, 2026. The same report, citing Bloomberg, said OpenAI is in talks to raise at least $30 billion at about a $1.4 trillion valuation as a bridge round before going public.

A June 2026 New York Times report had cited a potential $1 trillion IPO valuation, per Fortune. One read on this: if the $1.4 trillion round closes, an IPO at the $1 trillion figure would price below OpenAI's own last private round, so bankers would need a higher number to avoid a down round.

How much revenue does OpenAI make?

OpenAI has told investors its annualized revenue is "approaching $50 billion," the Financial Times reported, per TechCrunch on October 8, 2026. That is about $20 billion less than a roughly $70 billion figure circulated in September, which came from OpenAI investors restating its revenue the way Anthropic counts sales through cloud partners. Leaked financials showed about $13 billion of revenue in 2025.

At the August all-hands, Friar showed slides with the revenue run rate up 35% in the quarter, enterprise up 50%, 20 million weekly users for the AI coding product and a run rate above $40 billion, The Next Web reported, noting run rates can exceed booked revenue. Our OpenAI revenue breakdown tracks the figures over time.

Will Anthropic go public before OpenAI?

Very likely, on current reporting. Anthropic is targeting a Nasdaq debut before November 26, 2026, with year-end as the fallback, Yahoo Finance reported on October 13, 2026, while OpenAI's earliest reported window is 2027. Anthropic's pricing will become the first public comparable for OpenAI. Our Anthropic IPO date page tracks that timeline.

What the headline misses

"Early 2027" is a reported window, not a company commitment, and the CEO's own condition has no date attached. A safety standard set by the company itself can move in either direction, so OpenAI could list sooner than skeptics expect or later than early 2027.

The revenue revision matters as much as the delay. A $20 billion gap between two ways of counting annualized revenue is the kind of difference a public S-1 will settle with audited numbers, and investors will compare it line by line with Anthropic's filing.

How can I invest in OpenAI before the IPO?

OpenAI shares do not trade on a public exchange. Accredited investors can sometimes buy them through secondary marketplaces, and some listed funds hold stakes; each route has minimums, fees and transfer restrictions, and secondary prices can run ahead of the last round. Our guide to buying OpenAI stock today covers each option. This is not investment advice.

What to watch, and when

• Any time: the $1.4 trillion round closing. A close would set OpenAI's last private price before an IPO (TechCrunch).
• November 2026: Anthropic's pricing. The first public frontier-lab comparable (Yahoo Finance).
• A public S-1 on EDGAR. Required at least 15 days before any roadshow; until it appears, an IPO is at least two to three weeks away.
• New statements from Altman or Friar. Any restated year would replace the safety condition with a date (Gizmodo).

As of October 15, 2026, OpenAI is the largest company on our list of expected 2027 IPOs; the full queue is on the AI IPO pipeline and the Tech IPO Dashboard.