OpenAI has acquired Openclaw, an open-source AI agent framework that gained widespread popularity among developers. The CEO Sam Altman took to X (formerly Twitter) on the 15th of February to confirm the acquisition.
The company announced that it has brought on Openclaw’s creator, Peter Steinberger “to drive the next generation of personal agents”. This move is the clearest signal yet that OpenAI is moving from AI chatbot systems towards autonomous AI agents.
From Side Project to Silicon Valley Acquisition
Openclaw has had its fair share of name changes. It started out as ClawdBot, then MoltBot, before settling on its current name. Peter Steinberger, an Australian software developer, launched it in November 2025.
Surprisingly, what began as just a side project quickly grew into something more. This tool enabled users to create their own AI smart assistant and integrate into apps like calendars and email accounts while allowing command prompts to be sent via chat tools like Whatsapp and Telegram.
In addition, Openclaw was designed to be easy to use and is compatible with over 50 external servers which made adoption almost instantaneous. In a short time, Openclaw racked up 196,000 GitHub stars and 2 million weekly users and these numbers caught the attention of every AI lab.
OpenAI Agentic AI Acquisition: What the Deal Includes
Steinberg confirmed the news on his blog. “I’m joining OpenAI to work on bringing agents to everyone. OpenClaw will move to a foundation and stay open and independent”, he wrote.
However, the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed but it is estimated to be between $2-15 million based on similar deals in the AI acquisition space.
As part of the arrangement, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman confirmed that Steinberger will lead the development of the next generation of personal agents, while the OpenClaw project itself will transition into an independent open-source foundation.
Why OpenAI is Investing in Autonomous Agents Now
The timing of this deal is very strategic. OpenAI’s previous attempts at agentic products, including its Agents API, Agents SDK and Atlas Agentic Browser, all failed to achieve the level of success Openclaw reached in such a short time.
Meanwhile, competitive pressure continues to increase on all sides. This announcement highlights the growing AI arms race between OpenAI, Google and Anthropic to create AI that performs tasks instead of just talking.
Rather than spend months building from scratch, OpenAI has also acquired the proof of concept the open-source community had validated.
Moreover, this acquisition was more about strategic positioning than financial gain. OpenAI has gained access to proven infrastructure, an engaged developer community and solid proof that the future of AI agents is cross-platform integration.
How the Openclaw Acquisition Could Reshape the AI Agent Market
Currently, OpenAI is looking to integrate agentic capabilities directly into its core product roadmap. Deeper agent features inside ChatGPT and broader enterprise tooling is to be expected going forward.
Even with all this, a lot of people still have reservations regarding this development. The open-source community central is concerned whether Openclaw will remain “open” despite being under OpenAI’s control.
In addition, security experts have also flagged concerns, noting that the deep integration of Openclaw without proper security has left several glaring holes in its defences.
Ultimately, the broader industry shift is clear. The industry has now moved focus from what AI can say to what AI can do. However, it remains to be seen whether OpenAI’s bet on Openclaw will drive that shift permanently.
