AI Giants Pump Brakes: OpenAI Delays IPO Amidst Warnings from Altman, Musk, and Amodei on Rapid AI Advancement

The fast-paced world of artificial intelligence is seeing an unexpected deceleration as OpenAI, one of its leading innovators, has decided against going public this year. CEO Sam Altman, in a recent interview, declared that pursuing an Initial Public Offering (IPO) at this juncture would be "ill-advised." This revelation comes amidst a growing chorus of industry leaders, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and xAI founder Elon Musk, who are vocally advocating for a more measured approach to AI development.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has announced that his company will not be launching an IPO this year, a decision largely driven by increasing concerns surrounding the safety and ethical implications of advanced artificial intelligence. In a Fortune interview published Saturday, Altman articulated that an immediate IPO would be "ill-advised," effectively pushing back one of the most anticipated market debuts in recent memory until at least 2027. This move signals a significant shift, indicating that the industry's colossal commercial ambitions are now being reshaped by the critical imperative of AI safety.

Just last month, OpenAI CFO Sara Friar had indicated to employees that an IPO was likely by 2027, or even sooner, contingent on the company's continued growth trajectory. Altman's latest comments underscore a more cautious outlook.

His announcement coincided with the release of an influential essay by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. In his published work, Amodei called for AI companies to deliberately moderate the speed at which they enhance their most sophisticated models. Remarkably, both Sam Altman and Elon Musk quickly endorsed Amodei’s proposition via social media, a rare display of solidarity among three fierce competitors.

Dario Amodei, co-founder and chief executive officer of Anthropic, during an interview on "The Circuit with Emily Chang" at Anthropic's headquarters in San Francisco, California, US, on Thursday, April 30, 2026.
Jason Henry | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Amodei's essay outlined a three-step strategy designed to temper the pace of development without "sacrificing commercial advantage or the United States' lead in AI." Even as Anthropic itself is actively preparing for what is also projected to be a landmark IPO – though no official debut date has been announced – the collective concern over AI's trajectory is undeniable.

This surprising unity among Altman, Amodei, and Musk underscores how rapidly AI safety concerns have moved from fringe discussions to the forefront of the industry, now directly impacting commercial strategies and investment timelines.

The essay specifically urged artificial intelligence companies to regulate the speed at which they advance model capabilities, echoing a broader call from a growing number of researchers for a coordinated slowdown.

Amodei acknowledged that some elements of his three-step plan might be more readily achievable than others, but insisted it would help manage development speed while safeguarding U.S. leadership in AI innovation.

The pressure is mounting from policymakers in Washington, where bipartisan calls for new AI safeguards are growing. Lawmakers are demanding testimony from tech leaders following a series of cyberattacks reportedly carried out without direct human intervention.

Beyond the federal level, state and local authorities are also grappling with public outrage concerning AI data centers and their significant demands on local power grids, water resources, and communities. With midterm elections on the horizon, AI's societal impact is rapidly becoming a pivotal electoral issue.

Deepening Concerns Over AI's Capabilities

Anthropic, Amodei stated, has unilaterally committed to the initial step of his proposed plan. This involves granting third-party evaluators employee-level access to the company to verify safety protocols and report any incidents. The second step encourages major AI companies in democratic nations to collaborate on establishing common safety standards. The third, and perhaps most challenging, calls for coordination between democratic and authoritarian governments on these issues.

"To be clear, pacing does not mean halting model training or technical progress, but ensuring companies take adequate time to align and safeguard their models, and for third party evaluators to confirm this," Amodei emphasized in his essay.

Amodei's essay followed a recent controversy sparked by Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, who announced his resignation this week on X, expressing profound concern that both Anthropic and OpenAI are "gambling with our lives." Coxon, who previously worked at OpenAI, stated that those developing AI "earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade."

I quit my job at Anthropic this week. My reason is simple: Anthropic, OpenAI, and other frontier labs are gambling with our lives. The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. We need to listen to them. pic.twitter.com/2097476196791709843

— Jacob Coxon (@hilbertspaess) September 9, 2026

While Coxon’s warnings might seem extreme, fears regarding AI's potential for human extinction or other catastrophic outcomes are not new to AI research circles. As far back as 2023, prominent AI researchers and executives, including Amodei and OpenAI's Altman, signed a statement declaring, "Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war."

Amodei noted that while calls to pause or slow AI development emerged in 2023, it made "little sense" at the time. He reasoned that models then lacked the power to meaningfully interact with the real world or exhibit "significant deception, manipulation, cheating, or cyberattacks."

"I continue to believe that AI can enormously improve the quality of human life. My desire to achieve these benefits is undimmed," Amodei affirmed. "But the benefits will only be achieved if we build the technology in the right way, and — so long as we use the time we gain well — it is worth taking unusually deliberate care to get it right."

Following the publication of his essay, Amodei emphasized in a CNN interview aired later Saturday that determining the optimal development speed is crucial. He warned that moving too slowly could inadvertently empower autocratic governments.

"If we go too slow, I still believe that the wrong people will be in charge of the technology. And that, again, will bring the probability of things going wrong very high," he explained.

Sarah Heck, Anthropic's head of public policy, praised Amodei's essay and urged lawmakers to establish regulatory guardrails.

The government has a critical role to play here, including blocking the sale of the most advanced chips to adversarial nations like China, enacting a national law requiring testing of frontier models, with the power to block the most advanced models that prove to be unsafe. pic.twitter.com/2098777403632062819

— Sarah Heck (@sarahkheck) September 9, 2026

Widespread Support for a Voluntary Slowdown

Amodei’s essay garnered significant support from numerous industry researchers and executives on Saturday, notably including Sam Altman. In a post on X, Altman confirmed his agreement with Amodei on the necessity for the industry to pace the advancement of sophisticated AI capabilities, noting that this topic has been a "primary topic" of discussion at OpenAI recently.

Agree with Dario that we need to pace the development of advanced AI capabilities. This has been a primary topic of discussion at OpenAI in recent weeks.

Committing to having independent evaluators with employee-like access is a great idea, and we will do the same. We'll have more to share soon. pic.twitter.com/2098811563415150910

— Sam Altman (@sama) September 9, 2026

Altman added, "Committing to having independent evaluators with employee-like access is a great idea, and we will do the same. We'll have more to share soon."

Earlier this month, OpenAI’s chief scientist, Jakub Pachocki, published a blog post warning that no AI company has "solved alignment and monitoring to a sufficient degree to continue responsibly scaling at maximum speed for much longer." In AI, "alignment" refers to the crucial work of ensuring that AI systems act in accordance with human values and intentions.

Pachocki expressed his expectation and hope that voluntary slowdowns would become "commonplace until shared safety bars are established."

Elon Musk also voiced his endorsement of a slowdown on Saturday, simply stating in an X post that, "Dario is right."

Dario is right. pic.twitter.com/2098789109980332057

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 9, 2026

Musk, whose competitive AI startup xAI was acquired by his rocket company SpaceX earlier this year, had previously been a vocal critic of Anthropic, even suggesting the company "hates Western Civilization" and would become "misanthropic." However, following Anthropic's significant compute deal with SpaceX in May, Musk's stance notably softened.

Everyone I met was highly competent and cared a great deal about doing the right thing. No one set off my evil detector. pic.twitter.com/2027294561467613256

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 3, 2026

Amodei reiterated Saturday his belief that AI holds the potential to "dramatically raise the quality of human life," but stressed the necessity of addressing its risks with utmost seriousness.

"I believe that if slowing down bought us even an extra year or two before models reach critical levels of capability, and we used that time to advance alignment, we could greatly reduce the risk that something goes seriously wrong," he concluded.