OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman explicitly ruled out a 2026 IPO in September, citing the need to prioritize AI safety and alignment work on its large language models before facing public-market scrutiny, which has anchored trader expectations around a 2027 timeline despite the company’s confidential S-1 filing in June. Recent revenue momentum following the GPT-6 Astra model release, now approaching $50 billion annualized, supports ongoing private fundraising talks for up to $30 billion at a revised $1.25–1.4 trillion valuation, positioning the round as a bridge amid investor caution over AI infrastructure costs. Rival Anthropic’s planned mid-November listing will test market appetite for frontier AI firms and could influence OpenAI’s path, while commitments on the current round are due by late October.