Sam Altman announces OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger joining OpenAI

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Sunday said that the creator of AI agent OpenClaw is joining OpenAI, and that the service will now live on as an open source project that OpenAI will continue to support.  

OpenClaw was earlier called Clawdbot and Moltbot, OpenClaw was launched by an Australian software developer Peter Steinberger. The move was confirmed after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced that Steinberger would lead work on personal AI agents at the company.  

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.”

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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. We expect this will quickly become core to our…

— Sam Altman (@sama) February 15, 2026

OpenClaw developed quickly 

Many users say OpenClaw lowered the barrier to experimenting with agent-based AI, helping OpenClaw spread quickly through developer and AI enthusiast circles.

Till now, no terms were disclosed including OpenAI. In May, OpenAI also acquired iPhone designer Jony Ive’s AI devices startup io for over $6 billion.

Anthropic’s Claude has been getting particular traction of late thanks to Claude Code, and the company recently introduced Claude Opus 4.6, which is better at coding, sustaining tasks for longer and creating higher-quality professional work, the company said.

‘Person with amazing ideas’: Altman about Steinberger

OpenAI has said Steinberger will focus on developing personal AI agents that are easy to use and safe for everyday users. Altman described him as someone with “amazing ideas about the future of very smart agents interacting with each other to do useful things for people.”

This approach reflects a wider trend in AI, where companies are racing to move beyond chatbots and towards agents that can plan, act and collaborate across tasks.

I'm joining @OpenAI to bring agents to everyone. @OpenClaw is becoming a foundation: open, independent, and just getting started.🦞https://t.co/XOc7X4jOxq

— Peter Steinberger 🦞 (@steipete) February 15, 2026

OpenClaw has expanded its roots in China and can be connected with Chinese-developed large language models, such as DeepSeek and can easily be carried to perform different steps.  

Some researchers are concerned about the openness of OpenClaw, and the cyberthreats potentially posed by users’ ability to tweak it in just about anyway they see fit.