Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on February 15, 2026
2 min readLast updated: February 15, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleOpenClaw's founder joins OpenAI, marking a new chapter for the open-source bot as it becomes a foundation, despite security concerns.
Feb 15 (Reuters) - Peter Steinberger, the founder of OpenClaw, is joining OpenAI, and the open-source bot is becoming a foundation, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on Sunday.
"Peter Steinberger is joining OpenAI to drive the next generation of personal agents," Altman said in a post on X, adding "OpenClaw will live in a foundation as an open source project that OpenAI will continue to support."
OpenClaw, formerly known as Clawdbot or Moltbot, is what fans describe as an assistant that can stay on top of emails, deal with insurers, check in for flights and perform myriad other tasks.
OpenClaw has had a viral rise since it was first introduced in November, receiving more than 100,000 stars on code repository GitHub and drawing 2 million visitors in a single week, according to a blog post by Steinberger.
OpenClaw's growing popularity has attracted scrutiny, with China's industry ministry warning the open-source AI agent could pose significant security risks when improperly configured and expose users to cyberattacks and data breaches.
"It’s always been important to me that OpenClaw stays open source and given the freedom to flourish. Ultimately, I felt OpenAI was the best place to continue pushing on my vision and expand its reach," Steinberger posted in a blog on Sunday.
(Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Chris Reese)
OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research organization that aims to promote and develop friendly AI for the benefit of humanity.
Open-source software is software that is released with its source code made available for anyone to view, modify, and distribute.
Cybersecurity refers to the practice of protecting systems, networks, and programs from digital attacks, ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data.
An AI personal agent is a software application that uses artificial intelligence to assist users in managing tasks and information, often through natural language processing.
Open-source projects encourage collaboration and innovation by allowing developers to contribute to and improve software freely, often leading to enhanced security and functionality.
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