OpenClaw to Form Independent 'Lobster Foundation,' With Nvidia and ByteDance Joining

OpenClaw began as an open-source AI agent project built by founder Peter Steinberger to address practical needs in his personal life. Its rapid rise drew a larger community of users and developers, but also exposed the operational and security strains facing fast-growing open-source AI projects, where responsibility can remain concentrated on a small team or a single founder.

Steinberger said in a recent speech that a wave of cyberattacks and mounting pressure following OpenClaw’s surge in popularity pushed him close to a mental breakdown. Nvidia then dispatched a specialist team to take over security defenses, helping the project contain the threat and continue expanding. The account did not specify when the intervention occurred, the scale of the attacks or any financial value attached to Nvidia’s assistance.

OpenClaw, an open-source AI agent project founded by Austrian engineer Peter Steinberger in late 2025, allows users to run software on personal devices that can execute tasks autonomously. The project has rapidly gained traction on GitHub and is seen as a key building block for the next generation of AI agents, with an important role in advancing decentralization and privacy protection across the industry.

To preserve its neutrality and openness, the project formally established a 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation in the United States in July 2026. The move attracted investment and donation support from major companies including OpenAI, NVIDIA, Microsoft and Tencent, while the University of Michigan was the largest donor. OpenClaw now has 4.5 million weekly active users as industry players compete for influence over the next generation of AI agents.