OpenClaw Creator Peter Steinberger Joins OpenAI

Peter Steinberger, the developer behind OpenClaw that was launched and took off barely a month ago and has already had three names, is joining OpenAI. In addition, OpenClaw is moving to a foundation where it will remain an open-source project.

As Steinberger explains on his website:

It’s always been important to me that OpenClaw stays open source and given the freedom to flourish. Ultimately, I felt OpenAI was the best place to continue pushing on my vision and expand its reach. The more I talked with the people there, the clearer it became that we both share the same vision.

The community around OpenClaw is something magical and OpenAI has made strong commitments to enable me to dedicate my time to it and already sponsors the project. To get this into a proper structure I’m working on making it a foundation. It will stay a place for thinkers, hackers and people that want a way to own their data, with the goal of supporting even more models and companies.

The AI world has been talking about agents for more than a year, but it wasn’t until Steinberger’s project came along that we got software that put the idea of agents to practical use. OpenClaw may have only been just a few months old, but it captured the imaginations of users, including Federico, who has an uncanny knack for spotting the next big thing very early.

It will be interesting to see where OpenAI’s apps go next. I’ve been impressed with Codex, and with the Sky team and Steinberger on the company’s roster, I have high hopes for what they’ll do next.