Sam Altman revives OpenAI robotics team after five years

OpenAI is ramping up its robotics ambitions once again, launching a major hiring drive aimed at building robots that can operate in the physical world.

Taking to X OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced on Sunday that OpenAI Robotics is actively recruiting hardware, operations, systems, and machine learning engineers.

According to Altman, the goal is to develop and manufacture robots that are "useful for society". OpenAI President Greg Brockman later confirmed that the team is making rapid progress towards creating AI systems capable of helping people in the physical world rather than solely through software.

Why OpenAI Robotics is hiring engineers?

In contrast to most robotics applications which tend to target household help or factory work, OpenAI’s current focus lies in building the required infrastructure.

According to Altman, the emphasis at OpenAI is on building robots which can help people with the task of building infrastructure like data centres, power grids, factories, and other such facilities. As more and more computational power for AI becomes necessary, the requirement for construction projects also increases.

According to Altman, in the future there will be one robot per individual that will be capable of performing everyday activities for him or her.

From 2017 to 2021, the firm ran a robotics lab that gained popularity due to their robotic hand named Dactyl, which solved the Rubik's Cube puzzle successfully in one hand during 2019.

Following the dissolution of the group in 2021, the company continued its involvement in robotics through investing. OpenAI has invested in 1X Technologies with their Startup Fund in 2023 and also in Figure AI at a later stage.

The former head of hardware for robotics at OpenAI, Caitlin Kalinowski, quit the firm in March 2026 due to concerns regarding their relationship with the Pentagon and surveillance technology.