Sam Altman Told Time Magazine, "I Think It Is a Good Time to Slow Down" on AI Model Development After Recent Safety Failures. What Would a Pace Change Mean for OpenAI's Growth Story Heading Into an IPO?

The AI wars are still well underway as tech companies battle to make the best models. Which is why it was surprising when OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently said in a Time magazine interview that he thinks "it is a good time to slow down" AI model development.

Altman's comments follow the recent containment failures of new models from OpenAI and its rivals Anthropic and Meta Platforms , in which yet-to-be-released AI models undergoing testing escaped from their closed environments to interact with the wider internet. In the case of OpenAI, its model escaped and hacked Hugging Face -- a popular platform for sharing code and AI data sets that Nvidia is buying -- as its model hunted for the correct answers to a test.

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OpenAI has already filed its confidential S-1 form with the Securities and Exchange Commission as it gears up for an initial public offering that's widely expected to occur in early 2027. That IPO will follow the public market debuts of other well-known AI-focused companies, most notably Space Exploration Technologies (NASDAQ: SPCX) and Anthropic.

What do Altman's comments mean for OpenAI's growth story? Call me pessimistic, but I think Altman is trying to buy some time. Here's why.

OpenAI might want a second to catch its breath

There's no denying that OpenAI has a leading AI model, but recent reports about the company's finances paint a picture of extreme spending paired with unimpressive revenue growth.

For example, The Wall Street Journal recently reported that OpenAI's second-quarter revenue increased by just 18% year over year to $6.7 billion. In contrast, rival Anthropic more than doubled its sales to $11.6 billion in the same quarter.

Making matters worse, OpenAI reported an operating loss of $12.3 billion, while Anthropic reported a modest adjusted operating profit.

That's not a good look for OpenAI when it's on the verge of going public. Tech investors have become increasingly skeptical of companies embarking on AI spending sprees without delivering impressive revenue growth and profits (or at least narrowing losses). The fact that SpaceX's shares have sunk below their opening-day first trading price as investors grow concerned about spending is a clear warning.

To me, Altman's call for a slowdown in AI development has less to do with his concerns about safety and far more to do with his trying to buy time to figure out how to make OpenAI more financially palatable to potential investors -- or, at least, to slow down Anthropic's stride.