Highlights
- OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger joining OpenAI to drive development of next-generation personal agents.
- Viral AI tool spread rapidly in China and can be paired with DeepSeek and Chinese messaging apps.
- OpenAI valued at $500 billion faces intense competition from Google and Anthropic in generative AI market.
Austrian software developer Peter Steinberger, who launched OpenClaw last month, will join OpenAI "to drive the next generation of personal agents," Altman wrote in a post on X.
Previously called Clawdbot and Moltbot, the tool has surged in popularity as consumers and businesses flock to products that can autonomously complete tasks, make decisions and take actions on behalf of users without constant human guidance.
"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."
AI talent war
No financial terms were disclosed, but AI companies have been spending heavily to attract top talent.
OpenAI acquired iPhone designer Jony Ive's AI devices startup io for over $6 bn in May, while Meta and Google have also committed billions to recruiting AI developers and researchers.
OpenAI, most recently valued at $500 bn, faces fierce competition in the generative AI market from Google and Anthropic, whose models are increasingly used by enterprises to automate business tasks.
Anthropic was valued at $380 bn in a fundraising round closed earlier this week, with its Claude models gaining particular traction through Claude Code and the recently introduced Claude Opus 4.6.
Security concerns raised
OpenClaw has spread rapidly in China and can be paired with Chinese-developed language models including DeepSeek and configured to work with Chinese messaging apps.
Chinese search engine Baidu plans to give users of its main smartphone app direct access to OpenClaw, a spokesperson told CNBC.
However, some researchers have raised concerns about OpenClaw's openness and potential cybersecurity threats posed by users' ability to modify the tool in almost any way they choose.
The ability to integrate with Chinese platforms and language models has attracted particular scrutiny from the security community.
