Peter Steinberger
Creator, OpenClaw
He made OpenClaw, the open-source personal AI agent that became GitHub's most-starred software project.
- Born
- 1986-05-22, Austria
- Now
- Member of Technical Staff, OpenAI
- Studied
- TU Wien
Interesting facts
- Side project
OpenClaw started as a weekend hack called WhatsApp Relay, then passed 100,000 GitHub stars and drew 2 million visitors in a single week.
openclaw.ai - Detour
The project was first named Clawd, a pun on Claude with a claw, until Anthropic's legal team asked him to rename it.
openclaw.ai - Turning point
Says both Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman made him offers; he picked OpenAI in February 2026 and moved OpenClaw into a foundation.
businessinsider.com - Before AI
Bootstrapped his PDF software company PSPDFKit to a nine-figure exit, then retired before AI pulled him back in.
steipete.me - Early start
As a student he started his university's first Mac and iOS developer course, run with Apple Austria, and tutored teams for over two years.
linkedin.com - In their words
Says his next mission is to build an agent that even his mum can use.
steipete.me
Career
- OpenAIMember of Technical Staff2026 to now
- OpenClawCreator2025–2026
- Amantus MachinaFounder2025–2026
- Founders of EuropeCo-founder2022–2026
- PSPDFKitFounder and CEO2010–2021
- ScribdSenior iOS Developer2010–2011
- LOYTEC electronicsSoftware Engineer2006–2009
Education
- BSc, Computer and information sciences, TU Wien, 2012
