Steinberger joined OpenAI on February , . For you, that means OpenClaw is now governed by an independent foundation. The MIT license stays. OpenAI sponsors but doesn't own the code.
For you, nothing changes in practice. OpenClaw is still free and open-source. You still host it yourself. The one breaking change was the removal of auth mode "none" in 2026.1.29. Development is faster than before, with active work on security and the plugin ecosystem.
You now have the full picture of where OpenClaw stands and where it's headed.