OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Sunday that the creator of the viral AI agent OpenClaw is joining the company, and that the service will “live in a foundation as an open source project that OpenAI will continue to support.”
Previously called Clawdbot and Moltbot, OpenClaw was launched last month by Austrian software developer Peter Steinberger. It’s surged in popularity, due in part to attention on social media, as consumers and businesses swarm to products that can autonomously complete tasks, make decisions, and take actions on behalf of users without constant human guidance.
In a post on X, Altman wrote that 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,” Altman wrote. “We expect this will quickly become core to our product offerings.”
No terms were disclosed, but AI companies, including OpenAI, have been throwing open their wallets to hire top AI talent. In May, OpenAI acquired iPhone designer Jony Ive’s AI devices startup io for over $6 billion. Meta
