Sam Altman mum on OpenAI’s fundraising plans, future listing, says 0% excited to be a public company CEO
Sam Altman, chief of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, did not confirm reports about OpenAI’s possible fundraising or future listing plans during a recent podcast interview, but noted that he is “0% excited” to be the CEO of a publicly traded company because it “will be nerve-wracking in some ways.”
Hosting Alex Kantrowitz on the ‘Big Tech Podcast’, Sam Altman responded to the question of how he would feel leading the publicly traded company. “Am I excited to be a public company CEO? 0%. Am I excited about OpenAI being a public company? In some ways I’m excited, and in some ways I think it’s going to be really nerve-wracking,” he said.
Will OpenAI go for a public listing?
The issue has come under discussion amid multiple reports from the Wall Street Journal and Reuters that OpenAI’s IPO in late 2026-early 2027 would value the artificial intelligence (AI) technology company at up to $1 trillion.
Answering questions about the possible IPO, Sam Altman told Kantrowitz that he doesn’t know if the ChatGPT maker will go public in 2026. He likewise did not confirm reports that the company was in talks with investors for “tens of billions of dollars” at a $750 billion valuation, according to The Information.
Fortune reported that OpenAI did not respond to its questions on the matter.
Sam Altman on markets and capital requirements
But Sam Altman added that it’s “wonderful” how public markets can participate in value creation. He added that OpenAI is a capital-intensive company and needs “a lot” to compete in the AI race.
He said: “I think it’s a great thing that public markets are participating in value creation. And in a way, if you look at any company before, we’re going to be too late to go public. Being a private company is great. We need a lot of capital. At some point we’re going to exceed all the shareholder caps and things like that.”
OpenAI recently transitioned from nonprofit to for-profit in a restructuring that saw the nonprofit that controls the company hold $130 billion worth of stock and reduce Microsoft’s 27% stake in the company, as well as increase access to OpenAI’s research. ChatGPT renderer is now free to work with other cloud computing platforms as well as Windows renderer.
OpenAI’s ‘code red’, Sam Altman says ‘it’s good to be paranoid’
Referring to the ‘Red Code’ called by OpenAI in the increasing competitive environment, Sam Altman said that this is a continuous process. “I think it’s good to be paranoid and act quickly when a potential competitive threat arises. This has happened to us in the past. It also happened with DeepSeek earlier this year. There was code red then too,” he said.
“My guess is we’ll be doing these once a year, maybe twice a year, for a long time, and that’s really part of making sure we win in our space. A lot of other companies are going to do great things, too, and I’m happy for them,” he added.
Echoing similar sentiments before, OpenAI’s Chief Research Officer Mark Chen said in an interview with Bloomberg that the company often calls for code red “when we want to make an effort to focus on a particular topic.”
(With input from institutions)
