How did Meta lose the ClawFather?
After Zuckerberg reached out, Altman ultimately won over OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger. Also: India's AI Summit kicks off, a new consumer AI agent platform, and Roblox is the gaming market.
Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. I’m headed to New York City for part of next week before heading back to Los Angeles for the Upfront Summit. Holler if you want to meet up.
“That was a good first start”
Less than a week before he ultimately joined OpenAI, OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger talked about the two job offers he was considering during a podcast conversation with Lex Fridman.
He revealed that Mark Zuckerberg had personally reached out to him via WhatsApp — as the Meta CEO is known to do with potential recruits — and asked to chat. “He was like, ‘Yeah, give me 10 minutes, I need to finish coding,’” Steinberger recalled to Fridman. “That gives you street cred. He’s still writing code. He didn’t drift away into just being a manager. He gets me. That was a good first start.”
Even still, Zuckerberg lost out to Sam Altman, who announced over the weekend that Steinberger was joining OpenAI to “drive the next generation of personal agents.” In his chat with Fridman, Steinberger said he had “really cool discussions” with Altman, who he described as “really thoughtful” and “brilliant.”
Sources say that while Meta offered him more money, Steinberger ultimately aligned more closely with OpenAI's overall vibe and vision. It helped that he had already made millions by cashing out of his last startup, PSPDFKit, which lessened the pressure to take the highest-paying gig. He said as much during the podcast with Fridman: “I don’t do this for the money. I don’t give a fuck… I want to have fun and have impact.”
