One Guy Vibe-Coded an AI Agent. OpenAI Bought It for $1 Billion.
An Austrian developer built an open-source AI agent as a side project. Eight months later, OpenAI acquired it in a deal rumored at $1 billion. OpenClaw is the first mainstream AI that doesn’t just answer questions — it actually does things. We break down the acquisition, what agents can do that chatbots can’t, the guardrails problem, and what it means for every knowledge worker.