Sam Altman was ‘0%’ excited to be a CEO of a public company—but OpenAI is taking steps to compete in the AI IPO blitz anyway

Sam Altman looks down and to the side, frowning. (Credit: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg—Getty Images)

OpenAI may be building up to one of the largest initial public offerings ever, but CEO Sam Altman is not necessarily looking forward to helming a public company.

“Am I excited to be a public company CEO? 0%,” Altman said in an episode of the Big Technology Podcast published in December 2025. “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.”