OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger joins OpenAI to advance AI agents

OpenAI has brought on board Peter Steinberger, the creator of the viral open-source autonomous assistant OpenClaw, to strengthen its work on next-generation personal AI agents.

Sam Altman announced the development on X, saying, "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."

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

Steinberger’s move comes as OpenClaw gained rapid popularity in recent weeks for its promise of building an “AI that actually does things,” including managing calendars, booking flights, and interacting with apps on behalf of users. The platform, previously known as Clawdbot and Moltbot, went viral for allowing users to run intelligent agents locally and automate everyday digital tasks.

As part of the transition, OpenClaw will continue as an open-source project under a foundation backed by OpenAI. The company said Steinberger will help lead efforts to build advanced multi-agent systems that can collaborate and perform complex real-world workflows autonomously.

Steinberger stated that while OpenClaw had the potential to become a large standalone company, he chose to join OpenAI to maximise impact and accelerate development. His long-term goal is to create simple, accessible AI agents that can be used by everyday consumers.