Who's who · Open-source projects
OpenClaw
Open-source personal AI agent that runs on your own computer and works through chat apps
At a glance
- Founded
- November 2025
- Based in
- United States
- People
- Peter Steinberger, Creator, now at OpenAI; Dave Morin, Chairperson, OpenClaw Foundation; Vincent Koc, Chief architect, OpenClaw Foundation
- Known for
- OpenClaw, OpenClaw Gateway, OpenClaw apps
- Licence
- MIT
- Funding
- Non-profit: OpenClaw Foundation, a US 501(c)(3) funded by donors
- GitHub stars
- 390,000+ (Oct 2026)
- Steward
- OpenClaw Foundation, a US 501(c)(3)
- Website
- https://openclaw.ai
OpenClaw is an open-source personal AI agent that runs on the user's own computer and is controlled through messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Signal and iMessage. It can handle everyday tasks such as sorting email, managing a calendar or checking in for flights. Its memory and data stay on the user's machine, and it works with models from several providers, including Claude, GPT and local models.
Peter Steinberger launched it in November 2025; it was first known as Clawdbot, then Moltbot, before becoming OpenClaw. It spread quickly and has more than 390,000 stars on GitHub.
In February 2026 Steinberger joined OpenAI to work on personal agents, and the project moved to the OpenClaw Foundation, an independent US 501(c)(3) non-profit. The foundation employs the core team, signs every release and keeps the code under the MIT licence, with no paid edition. Donors include OpenAI, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Amazon and Red Hat; the foundation says donors do not own, control or direct the project. Dave Morin chairs the foundation. Nearly 30 core maintainers from companies including NVIDIA, Microsoft, OpenAI and Tencent review the code, alongside more than 3,000 community contributors.
Sources
- OpenClaw Foundation, OpenClaw, 2026-10-02
- OpenClaw Foundation, OpenClaw Foundation: people, 2026-10-02
- OpenClaw Foundation, OpenClaw Foundation: donors, 2026-10-02
- CGTN, OpenClaw founder Steinberger joins OpenAI, open-source bot becomes foundation, 2026-02-16
Facts last checked 2026-10-02