Austrian AI developer Peter Steinberger is moving to OpenAI in San Francisco, citing a lack of enthusiasm and excessive regulation in Europe. He contrasts the ‘enthusiastic’ US environment with Europe’s focus on ‘regulation and responsibility,’ which he believes stifles innovation and entrepreneurship. Steinberger’s viral AI agent platform, OpenClaw, will remain open-source as he pursues ambitious goals with OpenAI.
Peter Steinberger, the Austrian developer behind viral AI agent platform OpenClaw, is heading to San Francisco after being personally recruited by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman—and he’s not leaving quietly.In a candid post on X, Steinberger laid out exactly why he chose to cross the Atlantic. “In the USA, most people are enthusiastic,” he wrote. “In Europe, I get insulted, people scream REGULATION and RESPONSIBILITY.” He added that building a company in Europe means wrestling with investment protection laws, employee co-determination rules, and what he called “paralyzing labor regulations.” At OpenAI, most employees work six to seven days a week and are compensated for it.
In much of Europe, that’s simply illegal.
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Steinberger, who previously split his time between London and Vienna, isn’t the first European founder to make this argument—but few have made it this bluntly, right as they walk out the door. The timing stings. OpenClaw went viral for letting AI agents autonomously manage calendars, book flights, and even populate Moltbook, a social platform built exclusively for AI bots.
Altman called Steinberger “a genius” on X and said he would help build “the next generation of personal agents” at OpenAI—a space Altman described as one that will “quickly” become core to what the company offers.
OpenClaw stays open-source as its creator moves on to bigger ambitions
Rather than monetise OpenClaw or fold it into OpenAI, Steinberger is transitioning it into a foundation to keep the code open source. His stated goal is more ambitious than building a startup: he wants to create an AI agent that, as he put it, “even my mum can use.”Europe’s struggles aren’t news. A 2024 EU report flagged the region’s widening innovation gap with the US, but by end of 2025, little had changed. Steinberger had hoped EU INC—a push for a unified corporate framework across the bloc—might help. He now says it’s “fizzling out,” undone by what he calls “egoistic national interest.”
