With OpenAI being responsible for generative AI as we know it today, it’s easy to dismiss its robotics legacy as a mere afterthought. In 2019, the company built a robotic hand that solved a Rubik’s Cube in roughly four minutes, only to close its robotics division a few years later due to limited data at the time. However, it appears that a robotics revival is in the works.
Why Would OpenAI Be Getting Back Into Robotics?
Reports of OpenAI’s move into humanoid robotics are coming at a time of immense growth for the robotics sector as a whole, as well as OpenAI specifically. Robots would give the company’s AI systems a physical presence to directly interact with the world and collect real-time data. This could be the key for OpenAI to unlock more advanced forms of AI and fulfill its mission of achieving artificial general intelligence.
OpenAI is reportedly hiring personnel with expertise in building humanoid robots — robots that resemble humans in appearance and mimic human actions. Don’t be fooled, though: Entering the robotics field doesn’t mean OpenAI is shifting its attention away from artificial intelligence. In fact, this decision may have everything to do with AI and who gets to control its future.
Signs of OpenAI’s Return to Robotics
While OpenAI hasn’t officially announced any robotics-related news, its recent moves offer some pretty clear hints. The company filed a trademark application back in January that mentions “user-programmable humanoid robots” with “communication and learning functions for assisting and entertaining people.”
In the months since, OpenAI has been slowly assembling a team of robotics researchers, and its careers page lists several open roles for its robotics team. Here’s a quick summary of what each position would entail:
- DAQ Software Engineer: Focused on data acquisition (DAQ), this role will collaborate with different personnel to establish practices for data collection and quality control.
- Mechanical Engineer (Sensing): This role will use computer-aided design to prototype and create sensor and tactile technologies that will power “intelligent machines.”
- Mechanical Product Engineer: This position will design physical components, including motors, actuators and other elements that make up robotic limbs.
- Simulation Environments Engineer: This role will be responsible for creating virtual environments to train robots in realistic scenarios.
It’s pretty clear that OpenAI is looking to re-enter the robotics race. But what could robots have to offer to an AI leader? Quite a bit, it turns out.
What This Means for OpenAI’s AGI Ambitions
OpenAI’s mission hinges on achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), a theoretical form of AI that can learn solely from raw data or experiences and apply this newfound knowledge to tasks it was never programmed to do. Essentially, AGI would mimic the way humans think and learn without the need for human intervention.
The problem is that this more advanced type of AI would need to engage with its environment to gain experience, but traditional devices like phones and laptops don’t support more in-depth, real-time interactions. To address this issue, there’s been an increasing shift toward embodied AI — AI that takes on a physical form, such as a robot, to interact with its surroundings and compile real-time information.
OpenAI is already trying to get ahead of the curve. In June, the company announced a new AI device that could resemble the iPod Shuffle and connect to other devices, gathering more information from the physical and digital worlds to enhance its capabilities. If all goes well, the product could be just one of many AI-first devices in OpenAI’s portfolio, and may serve as a natural stepping stone on the way to humanoid development.
With their potential to access the detailed, real-time data needed to take AI models to the next level, robots are becoming central to OpenAI’s strategy. And this time around, the company is better positioned to cement its presence in the industry.
Why Now?
Considering its status as an AI powerhouse, OpenAI may have picked the perfect moment to join the rapidly growing robotics sector.
Building Momentum in the Humanoid Robotics Industry
It hasn’t always been easygoing for robotics players, but their persistence is paying off as more companies introduce humanoids into factories and warehouses. Consider Figure AI, for instance. After achieving a “major breakthrough,” the company ended its partnership with OpenAI. Now, Figure is primed to make an even larger splash in the robotics industry with a valuation of $39 billion after its most recent funding round.
Indeed, robots have been getting plenty of attention from investors. According to Crunchbase, robotics startups have raised more than $6 billion in 2025. The bigger picture looks even more promising, with Morgan Stanley estimating that the humanoid robotics market could exceed $5 trillion by 2050. It’s no surprise that OpenAI would want to harness some of this early momentum before the industry really takes off.
Increased Independence From Microsoft
OpenAI is also in a better place from a business standpoint to venture into robotics once again. While the company maintains close ties with Microsoft, the two have accepted a restructured agreement that allows OpenAI to transition its for-profit arm to a public benefit corporation. This opens the door for OpenAI to raise more capital and go public further down the road. Not to mention that the company was already valued at $300 billion after its latest AGI funding, giving it the resources to continue its AI research and kickstart its robotics efforts.
Advancements in OpenAI’s Models
The release of ChatGPT launched large language models into the mainstream, and transformed OpenAI from a fledgling startup into a tech titan. Since then, models like GPT-4o and GPT-5 have offered multimodal features, improved reasoning and upgraded coding abilities. Plus, OpenAI’s gpt-oss models have even proven to be ideal for various applications in embodied AI, including training robots and analyzing their decisions.
Having gathered plenty of user data through these products, OpenAI can inform the design of its humanoid robots. In return, humanoids can directly interact with their surroundings, providing real-time data for OpenAI’s models as part of a development cycle that feeds into itself. OpenAI forever changed the generative AI landscape, and its consistent progress suggests that it could very well spark a comparable breakthrough in the world of robotics.
What OpenAI’s Robotics Push Reveals About the AI Race
On the surface, OpenAI’s move into robotics can be seen as good ol’ fashioned competition between tech giants. After all, OpenAI throwing its hat in the ring will likely mark yet another chapter in the rivalry between its CEO Sam Altman and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whose company is working on its own humanoid robot, Optimus.
But the stakes are much higher when viewing AI and robots on a global scale. The Chinese government has invested heavily in its robotics sector, giving Chinese startups like Unitree and X Square Robot an extra boost. For United States and European companies to catch up, they’ll still need to source their materials from China, which has tightened its grip on the global robotics supply chain.
With a clear advantage in the robotics market, China now has U.S. politicians worried about AI. DeepSeek-R1 proved that a much smaller and cheaper open-source model could rival the performance of those created by OpenAI, Anthropic and other U.S. tech titans. If robots can provide the real-time data needed to accelerate AI development, then China could use its robotics dominance to challenge America’s AI supremacy.
In this context, robotics is one of the most crucial fronts on the tech battlefield, and the U.S. is at risk of ceding vast territory. OpenAI’s decision certainly alters the dynamics of the robotics sector, but it may come too late as the U.S. struggles to fend off China in the AI race.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why would OpenAI re-enter the robotics field now?
According to Morgan Stanley, the humanoid robotics market could hit $5 trillion by 2050. At the same time, OpenAI has restructured its deal with Microsoft, creating more opportunities to raise capital. From a business perspective, these conditions make investing in humanoids an easy decision for OpenAI. The company can also power robots with its latest AI models and data courtesy of ChatGPT, getting its robotics era off to a fast start.
What do humanoid robots have to do with OpenAI’s AGI goals?
A major limitation of AI is that it’s stuck on outdated devices — laptops, phones, etc. — that don’t support real-time interactions with the physical world. If OpenAI can build humanoids, these robots can engage with their surroundings and collect real-time data. This data is what will allow AI to learn from more experiences and evolve into a higher form, such as AGI.
What does OpenAI’s robotics push reveal about the global AI race?
More than anything, humanoid robotics has become the latest frontier on the AI battlefield — robots can serve as the physical form that lets AI learn from real-time interactions with its surroundings, leading to more complex AI. As a result, U.S. politicians are concerned about China’s obvious advantage in the robotics industry. OpenAI’s decision to enter robotics is a big deal, but it may not stop the U.S. from losing its edge in the race.
