OpenAI hires OpenClaw creator just two months after its viral launch
Sam Altman confirmed this Sunday that Peter Steinbergerthe Austrian developer behind OpenClaw, joins the company to lead the development of next-generation personal agents. The announcement comes just two months after the launch of this open source tool that has experienced explosive growth in popularity.
Steinberger, whom Altman described as “a genius with a lot of incredible ideas about the future of highly intelligent agents interacting with each other,” will take on a key role in what OpenAI believes will be a critical part of its product offering. The company has not revealed the financial terms of the agreement, although the transfer market in the AI sector has been characterized by multi-million dollar operations. In May last year, OpenAI acquired Jony Ive’s AI device startup for more than 6 billion dollars.
What is Sam Altman buying?
OpenClaw is an artificial intelligence personal assistant that can control devices and perform tasks autonomously. Unlike chatbots like ChatGPT or Gemini, OpenClaw is a AI agent. This translates into a program that uses artificial intelligence to execute specific actions in an environment based on user instructions, making decisions and controlling different resources without constant supervision.
The tool, which was initially called Clawdbot and later Moltbot, can be controlled both through a web interface and through popular messaging applications such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Google Chat or iMessage. Once installed from the computer console, OpenClaw has the ability to open applications, manage files, write or modify documents and access accounts linked by the user.
Its operation is direct. If you ask it to send a WhatsApp message, the tool will open the app, search for the contact, type the message, and send it automatically. By having full access to the device’s hard drive and storage, you have a virtually unlimited memoryallowing you to improve your suggestions the more information you have about the user and their habits.
Talent strategy and commitment to open source
Beyond technology, the OpenAI movement appears to focus on talent acquisition. Steinberger coded OpenClaw in late 2025 and within weeks achieved mass adoption, especially in China, where the tool has been integrated with local language models such as DeepSeek and Chinese messaging apps. Tech giant Baidu already plans to offer direct access to OpenClaw from its main mobile application.
OpenAI will maintain OpenClaw as an open source project within a foundation that the company will continue to support. According to Altman, “the future will be extremely multi-agent.” He has also mentioned that for the startup it’s important to support open source as part of that. This decision contrasts with OpenAI’s tendency to keep its main developments under closed licenses.
The signing takes place at a time of intense competition in the generative AI market. Anthropic, recently valued at $380 billion, has gained ground with Claude Code and the recent release of Claude Opus 4.6, while Google continues to expand the enterprise capabilities of its models. OpenAI, currently valued at $500 billion, is looking to expand that figure as it faces competitive pressure.
Finally, we must not forget that, as indicated by the CNBCsome researchers have expressed concern about the open nature of OpenClaw and the potential resulting cybersecurity risks. After all, it is a tool that Anyone can modify and adapt to their needsno matter how perverse they are.
