OpenClaw Founder Steinberger Joins OpenAI
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- Peter Steinberger, founder of OpenClaw, is joining OpenAI, announced by Sam Altman on X, with the hire framed around multi-agent AI as a future product core.
- Altman said Steinberger has "a lot of amazing ideas" about getting AI agents to interact with each other, calling the future "extremely multi-agent" and saying that capability will "quickly become core to our product offerings."
- OpenClaw will live on as an open-source project in a foundation supported by OpenAI, per Altman's announcement.
- OpenClaw (previously Moltbot and Clawdbot) had a turbulent rise, including researchers finding over 400 malicious skills uploaded to ClawHub and the launch of MoltBook — a social network for AI agents that was immediately infiltrated by humans.
- Steinberger said on his personal blog that he wanted to "change the world, not build a large company," noting he'd already poured 13 years into a company and sees joining OpenAI as the fastest path to mass adoption.
- OpenAI lands the high-profile hire after losing several big names to Meta and a public falling-out with Elon Musk; deal terms and Steinberger's title remain undisclosed.
Why it matters: This is a notable talent win for OpenAI after recent defections to Meta and the Elon Musk fallout. Steinberger's blog makes the trade explicit: he hands OpenClaw's open-source future to an OpenAI-backed foundation in exchange for reach, giving OpenAI a foothold in the buzzy multi-agent ecosystem while converting a potential independent competitor into an aligned project.
