OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company is not focused on the timing of a potential IPO, downplaying the idea that rival Anthropic’s confidential filing has put pressure on OpenAI to accelerate its own public market plans.

Altman said OpenAI’s priority is building the best AI technology and business, not racing toward a listing. He made the comments during a CNBC interview at the groundbreaking of OpenAI and Oracle’s Stargate data center campus in Saline Township, Michigan.

Altman said he had just heard that Anthropic had confidentially filed its IPO prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“I think there is a race to deliver the best technology and build the best business, but going public is a financing event, and I don’t think that’s one that we’re focused on the timing of,” Altman said.

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He added that OpenAI will pursue an IPO when it makes sense for the company.

Anthropic’s confidential filing comes as investor demand for AI companies continues to intensify. Reuters reported that Anthropic filed for a US IPO this week, marking a major step toward a potential public listing and raising the stakes in its rivalry with OpenAI.

Altman’s comments came at the official groundbreaking of the Stargate data center campus in Saline Township. OpenAI said the project is a 1GW data center campus developed with Oracle, Related Digital, and Walbridge as part of its broader Stargate infrastructure buildout.

The Michigan campus is expected to become one of the largest AI infrastructure projects in the state. Local reports described the site as a $16 billion data center campus, with officials and business leaders framing it as a major investment in AI compute capacity.

OpenAI said the Stargate project is expected to generate about $1 billion in tax revenue over the life of the lease, supporting local schools and public services at the county and state levels.

Altman also addressed concerns about AI’s impact on jobs, saying people are right to be anxious about the technology. Still, he argued that companies adopting AI most aggressively are often hiring more workers, while those discussing AI driven layoffs may be adopting the technology less deeply.

He also said AI is likely to move beyond simple prompt and response interactions. In his view, AI systems will increasingly run in the background, understand user context, and assist with work continuously.

Altman dismissed the idea that OpenAI is focused on building data centers in space in the near term. He said he hopes humanity eventually expands to the stars, but OpenAI is focused on building infrastructure on Earth for now.