Particle.news

OpenAI Hires OpenClaw Creator Peter Steinberger as Open-Source Project Moves to Independent Foundation

The project moves to an independent foundation to remain open source with OpenAI support.

Overview

  • OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Steinberger will lead work on next‑generation personal agents expected to become core to OpenAI’s products.
  • OpenClaw will continue as an open-source project under a new foundation structure with ongoing backing from OpenAI, and no financial terms were disclosed.
  • Launched in November 2025, OpenClaw saw rapid traction with over 100,000 GitHub stars and reports of 2 million visitors in a single week.
  • The framework’s rise drew security warnings, including a notice from China’s industry ministry and Gartner’s assessment of the code as an unacceptable cybersecurity risk for businesses.
  • Steinberger previously fielded offers including from Meta, the community continues to build skills and forks, and new hosted variants like Moonshot AI’s Kimi Claw were announced.