In a podcast, Sam Altman stated that he is not at all thrilled about being the CEO of a publicly traded business because it would "in some ways be annoying," but he did not confirm reports regarding OpenAI's expected fundraising or future listing plans.
In a recent podcast interview, Sam Altman, Chief of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, stated that he is "0% excited" to be the CEO of a public business since it would "in some ways be annoying," but he did not confirm claims regarding OpenAI's potential fundraising or future listing intentions.
Sam Altman answered a question on how he would feel running the publicly traded company in an interview with host Alex Kantrowitz on the "Big Technology Podcast." "Am I thrilled to be the CEO of a publicly traded company? 0%. Am I excited for OpenAI to be a public company? In some ways, I am, and in some ways, I think it’d be really annoying,” he stated.
Will OpenAI become a publicly traded company?
The subject was brought up during several Wall Street Journal and Reuters publications about OpenAI preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) in late 2026 or early 2027, which would put the artificial intelligence (AI) technology company's valuation at up to $1 trillion.
Sam Altman told Kantrowitz that he was unsure if the ChatGPT manufacturer would pursue an IPO in 2026 in response to inquiries about a potential public listing. According to The Information, he also denied rumors that the business was negotiating for "tens of billions of dollars" from investors at a $750 billion valuation.
Sam Altman on markets and the need for capital
However, Sam Altman said that the ability of public markets to contribute to value generation is "cool." He went on to say that OpenAI requires "lots" of funds in order to participate in the AI race.
"I do think it's cool that public markets get to participate in value creation," he stated. In a way, if you look at any prior company, we will be very late to go public. Being a private firm is fantastic. We require a large sum of money. At some point, we will exceed all shareholder caps and other restrictions.
In a recent restructure, OpenAI changed its status from non-profit to for-profit, giving Microsoft a smaller 27% ownership in the company and the non-profit that controls it a $130 billion investment, in addition to expanded access to OpenAI's research. In addition to the Windows maker, the ChatGPT maker is now free to use with additional cloud computing platforms.
Sam Altman argues it's "good to be paranoid" about OpenAI's "code red."
In response to OpenAI's "Code Red" in the face of growing competition, Sam Altman stated that this is an ongoing process. "I believe that when a possible competitive danger appears, it's wise to be vigilant and take prompt action. We have experienced this in the past. That happened earlier this year with DeepSeek. And there was a code red back then, too,” he stated.
"I think we'll be doing these once or twice a year for a long time, and that's part of really just making sure that we win in our space." Many other businesses will succeed as well, and I'm pleased for them," he continued.
In an earlier interview with Bloomberg, OpenAI's Chief Research Officer Mark Chen expressed similar views, stating that the business frequently requests code red "when we want to have this focusing effort on one particular topic."
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