OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger moves to OpenAI: Here's what Sam Altman said

The AI world is charging faster than expected. The change outside begins with the change inside. That’s what is happening in OpenAI right now with the welcome of some notable AI platform creators. Peter Steinberger, the founder of OpenClaw,  a platform that helped popularise personal AI agents, has officially joined OpenAI. The confirmation came from Steinberger as well as OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman.  Also Read: ChatGPT gets Lockdown Mode and risk warnings for safer use: What they do

While taking it to X, Altman has confirmed that “Peter Steinberger is joining OpenAI to drive the next generation of personal agents. He is a genius with a lot of amazing ideas about the future of very smart agents interacting with each other to do very useful things for people.” Also Read: This ChatGPT feature can build full reports for you

Why Steinberger chose OpenAI

In a personal blog post, Steinberger explained that while OpenClaw had the potential to grow into a large company, building another corporate structure was not his goal. Instead, he described himself as “a builder at heart” who wants to focus on creating technology that can reach more people.

He noted that partnering with OpenAI offers access to advanced models, research, and infrastructure, things that are essential if AI agents are to become truly useful and safe for mainstream users. According to him, the decision became clearer after conversations with the OpenAI team revealed a shared long-term vision.

Simply put, the aim is scale, but without losing sight of innovation.

What happens to OpenClaw now?

Everyone must be wondering what will happen to OpenClaw. Both Steinberger and Altman have clarified that the project will remain open and independent. The plan is to transition it into a foundation so the community can continue building on it.

“OpenClaw will live in a foundation as an open source project that OpenAI will continue to support. The future is going to be extremely multi-agent and it’s important to us to support open source as part of that,” Sam Altman said. 

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Since its public debut, OpenClaw has seen rapid adoption, reportedly crossing over 100,000 stars on GitHub and drawing millions of visitors within weeks, a sign that interest in personal agents is far from niche.