OpenClaw Foundation Launches as 501(c)(3) Non-Profit
Six months ago, OpenClaw was a weekend project at Peter Steinberger’s place in Austria — a single claw and a Discord server. Today, it’s a global movement with 4.5 million new claws being born every week, and the fastest-growing repository in GitHub history. Now it’s officially a foundation.
On July 8, 2026, the OpenClaw Foundation formally launched as a 501(c)(3) American non-profit organization. The structure is deliberate: the foundation exists to protect OpenClaw and steward it as open and independent, just like Linux, Apache, and Mozilla before it.
What the Foundation Does
Peter keeps making the technical calls. But the foundation provides what a lone creator in Austria couldn’t: good governance, stable funding, and paid people to keep the claws alive. It also formalizes OpenClaw’s ambition to be “the Switzerland of AI” — neutral ground where every model and lab can plug in and collaborate on agent standards.
Foundation-convened councils are already underway on agent identity, agent profiles, evals, and enterprise deployment.
The Team
For the first time, OpenClaw has a full-time staff — drawn from the community worldwide. The engineering team includes Vincent Koc (Chief Architect), Josh Avant, Patrick Erichsen, Dallin Romney, Jason Sy, and Gideon Adegbesan. Operations is led by Jen Vescio (Partnerships), Matt Jasie (Finance), Hannes Rudolph (Community), and Kelly Pike (Talent).
Behind them: a global community of volunteer maintainers and thousands of contributors whose first pull request landed in OpenClaw.
OpenAI’s Role
Peter joined OpenAI earlier this year in what was described as “the biggest AI agent acquisition of 2026.” The foundation announcement clarifies that OpenAI has committed to keeping OpenClaw MIT-licensed, open, and independent — and Peter continues to steward it.
Open Roles
The foundation is actively hiring across engineering, design, developer relations, and marketing. See openclaw.org/careers.
The OpenClaw Foundation marks the project’s transition from a creator’s side project to durable, community-owned infrastructure — with the team, funding, and governance to outlast any single company or era.