OpenClaw Creator Gets Big Offers to Acquire AI Sensation—Will It Stay Open Source?
Peter Steinberger rapidly developed OpenClaw, a leading open-source self-modifying AI agent, which gained 180,000 GitHub stars and fueled a growing ecosystem of autonomous internet agents. As major companies like Meta and OpenAI make high-value acquisition offers, Steinberger insists the project must stay open-source, possibly following a model akin to Chrome/Chromium. He reports significant monthly losses from server costs, redirecting all sponsorships to dependencies rather than personal profit. A trademark dispute forced a name change from Clawdbot to MoltBot, triggering a wave of crypto scams that compromised his accounts and nearly prompted him to delete the project. Steinberger coordinated a secretive second rebrand to OpenClaw to thwart further attacks, describing the experience as severe online harassment. He embraces "agentic engineering" and predicts OpenClaw-style agents will make 80% of current apps obsolete by handling tasks autonomously. While weighing buyout offers and VC funding, Steinberger considers remaining independent to focus on building, valuing impact over financial gain.
