OpenAI is back in the robot business. On May 31, chief executive Sam Altman posted on X that OpenAI Robotics is hiring "exceptional full-stack hardware, ops, systems, and ML engineers to help us program and manufacture robots that are useful for society." President Greg Brockman confirmed the division is "making rapid progress towards building AI that can help people in the physical world."
From Dactyl to data center buildout
This is the company's most explicit hardware commitment since it disbanded its original robotics team in 2021. That earlier program, anchored by the Dactyl robotic hand, famously solved a Rubik's Cube one-handed in 2019 before OpenAI pivoted to language models. Since then, exposure to physical AI has come via the OpenAI Startup Fund, which led a $23.5 million round into humanoid players like 1X Technologies and joined Figure AI's $675 million round before Figure ended the collaboration in February 2025.
Construction first, household later
Altman framed the near-term focus narrowly: robots to support skilled workers wiring, pouring and assembling the data centers, power grids and factories that frontier AI demands. The long-term vision, he wrote, is "everyone having a personal robot doing anything they need." The hiring push lands as OpenAI competes for the same physical-AI talent feeding rivals like humanoid challengers and continues to scale capital against Anthropic, which recently filed confidentially for an IPO.
Open questions on autonomy and safety
Robotics hardware lead Caitlin Kalinowski, who joined from Meta in November 2024, resigned in March 2026, citing concerns about OpenAI's Pentagon work and the lack of guardrails around domestic surveillance and lethal autonomy. Rebuilding the discipline in-house — rather than relying on minority bets like portfolio investments — puts those safety questions squarely back inside OpenAI as it sprints toward a public listing.
Reporting based on coverage from Tech Funding News, Sam Altman on X, and Greg Brockman on X.