OpenAI Hires Peter Steinberger, Creator of OpenClaw: Here's What to Know

Liputan6.com, Jakarta - OpenAI has announced the hiring of Peter Steinberger, the brain behind the rapidly developing open-source artificial intelligence (AI) agent framework OpenClaw to drive the development of next-generation AI agents.

This important announcement was made directly by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Sunday, February 15, 2026, via the X platform (formerly Twitter).

Sam Altman stated that Steinberger will play a key role in leading the development of "the next generation of personal agents" at OpenAI.

“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.”

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

I'm joining @OpenAI to bring agents to everyone. @OpenClaw is becoming a foundation: open, independent, and just getting started.🦞https://t.co/XOc7X4jOxq

— Peter Steinberger 🦞 (@steipete) February 15, 2026

Sam Altman has stated that Peter Steinberger will help drive the "next generation of personal agents" at OpenAI.

Altman also mentioned that the future will be highly multi-agent, and this capability will "quickly become the core of OpenAI's product offering," signaling a strategic shift for the company.

It's important to note that OpenClaw will continue to be an open-source project under a foundation structure, with full support from OpenAI for its development.

This hire is seen as a strategic talent acquisition in the "war for AI talent," demonstrating OpenAI's strategy of acquiring promising developers working on specialized AI tools and frameworks.

Peter Steinberger is known as an accomplished software developer and entrepreneur from Austria.

Before OpenClaw, he had already proven his capabilities by founding PSPDFKit GmbH.

The company successfully developed one of the most widely used PDF SDKs for multiple platforms, establishing it as an industry standard.Steinberger successfully developed PSPDFKit until it reached an exit deal in 2021 reportedly worth around €100 million.

Before OpenClaw went viral, Steinberger had built 43 different projects.Furthermore, Steinberger is a very active open source contributor.

His GitHub profile shows significant contributions to various iOS libraries, developer tools, and community projects.

OpenClaw is an open-source agent artificial intelligence framework designed to operate continuously and act on behalf of users.

The project was previously known as Clawdbot and Moltbot, but the name was changed after Anthropic, the creator of Claude, raised concerns about the similarity.

The software boasts extensive functionality, enabling AI agents to execute commands, interact with external services, integrate with messaging platforms, and operate with comprehensive system-level permissions.

OpenClaw is known for its ability to perform autonomous tasks, such as clearing email inboxes, making restaurant reservations, and even checking in for flights.

OpenClaw achieved viral popularity in the weeks leading up to Steinberger's hiring, attracting tens of thousands of developers and soaring in GitHub stars.

The project became one of the fastest-growing in GitHub history, garnering over 175,000 stars in less than two weeks.

Its focus on practical agents that can actually get things done, not just chat, was a key draw.