OpenAI hires OpenClaw founder as AI agent race intensifies

Steinberger, who founded and sold PDF toolkit company PSPDFKit to Nutrient in 2024, began OpenClaw as a weekend project in November 2025.

Orchestration over intelligence

Altman’s emphasis on multi-agent systems reflects a broader competitive shift in AI, according to analysts. The race is moving from model intelligence to runtime orchestration.

That orchestration layer, encompassing model coordination, tool invocation, persistent context management, connector standards, identity enforcement, policy controls, and human override mechanisms, is becoming the competitive battleground, Gogia said.

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AndyC

Andy Curtis is an award-winning security consultant, researcher and public speaker. He has been working in the computer security industry since the early 1990s, having been employed by state and federal government, leading healthcare and banking providers across three continents. He has given talks about computer security for some of the world’s largest companies, worked with law enforcement agencies on investigations into hacking groups, and is a regular voice on TV and radio explaining IT security threats.

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