OpenClaw Creator Rejects Acquisition Without Open-Source Safeguard

Peter Steinberger, creator of open-source AI agent OpenClaw, said last week he has received acquisition offers from Meta and OpenAI but would only accept a deal if the project remains open source. OpenClaw has attracted 180,000 GitHub stars, incurs $10,000–$20,000 monthly costs, and survived theft and rebrand attacks; Steinberger predicts agent tools could replace roughly 80% of current apps.