Asger Risom
OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger is joining OpenAI to build “next generation” AI agents, saying that although his startup could have become a “huge company,” building one did not excite him.
The founder of a viral AI agent says he walked away from building what might have become a major tech firm.
Instead, he is heading to OpenAI to focus on what he calls the broader mission.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced on X that Peter Steinberger, creator of the AI agent behind the agent-only social network Moltbook, is joining the company.
Altman described Steinberger as “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,” adding that the work would focus on the “next generation” of personal AI agents.
Startup to labs
Steinberger’s OpenClaw project briefly went viral and was at various points known as Moltbot and Clawdbot before drawing attention from competitors including Anthropic.
Altman said OpenClaw will continue as an open-source initiative supported by OpenAI. “The future is going to be extremely multi-agent and it’s important to us to support open source as part of that,” he wrote.
In a separate post, Steinberger said he is joining OpenAI to “bring agents to everyone.”
“@OpenClaw is becoming a foundation: open, independent, and just getting started,” he added.
Mission over company
On his website, Steinberger reflected on the startup’s potential.
“I could totally see how OpenClaw could become a huge company,” he wrote, but added that building one did not motivate him.
“What I want is to change the world, not build a large company, and teaming up with OpenAI is the fastest way to bring this to everyone,” he said.
He later added on X that he was joining OpenAI “for the mission and because it seemed the best place to build,” writing: “I’ll f right off if that changes.”
A different view of AGI
Steinberger, who previously founded PDF software firm PSPDFKit before returning from retirement to launch OpenClaw in late 2025, is expected to contribute to OpenAI’s push toward more advanced agent systems.
On a recent Y Combinator podcast, he argued that artificial general intelligence may be more effective as a collection of specialised systems rather than a single all-purpose intelligence.
“What can one human being actually achieve? Do you think one human being could make an iPhone or one human being could go to space?” he said. “As a group we specialize, as a larger society we specialize even more.”
Sources: Statements by Sam Altman and Peter Steinberger on X; Steinberger website; Y Combinator podcast
