[elxr]

The fact that 1 billion is the threshold you chose to highlight shows the ridiculousness of this industry.

Openclaw is an amazing piece of hard work and novel software engineering, but I can't imagine OpenAI/anthropic/google not being able to compete with it for 1/20th that number (with solid hiring of course).

[ttul]

The game theory here is that either OpenAI acquires this thing now, or someone else will. It doesn't matter whether they could replicate it. All of the major players can and probably will replicate OpenClaw in their own way and make their thing incredibly scalable and wonderful. But OpenClaw has a gigantic following and it's relevant in this moment. For a trivial amount of money (relatively speaking), OpenAI gets to own this hype and direct it toward their models and their apps. Had they not succeeded here, Anthropic or Google would have gladly directed the hype in their direction instead, and OpenAI would be licking its wounds for some time trying to create something equivalently shiny.

It was a very good play by OpenAI.

[r0b05]

I tend to agree. I don't know whether it's Altman or someone else who makes these deals but OAI have made some brilliant moves and partnerships. Anthropic's tech is great but the OAI makes great business moves.

[ytNumbers]

Apparently, it was Meta that was the other main contender to hire him. Mark Zuckerberg was impressed by OpenClaw, but, I guess OpenAI wound up outbidding him. It is surprising that Anthropic and Google had little interest.

[piker]

It was more of a reference to the YC partner who suggested a one-man unicorn was on the horizon due to AI.

[PUSH_AX]

> Openclaw is an amazing piece of hard work and novel software engineering

Have you tried using it?

[m00dy]

novel software engineering ? Did you look at the code ?

[gip]

I think that’s fair.. building a competing product would likely be relatively easy and inexpensive. But that’s true for most software now: it’s becoming easier to build, and the barriers to entry are lower.

I love Anthropic and OpenAI equally but some people have a problem with OpenAI. I think they want to reposition themselves as a company that actively supports the community, open source, and earns developers’ goodwill. I attended a meeting recently, and there was a lot of genuine excitement from developers. Haven't seen that in a long time.

[rlt]

Is it really that amazing? It’s a pretty simple idea, and seemed pretty buggy when I tried it out.

[fishingisfun]

then explain why google paid 33 billion for a 5 year old israeli cybersecurity startup