OpenClaw creator says he spent $10 million in tokens in one month at OpenAI

Steinberger made the remark in conversation with Cloudflare CTO Dane Knecht. TechRadar reported that Knecht highlighted Steinberger's admission that he had used 'a virtually unlimited token budget, which not all of us in the room have.' Knecht added: 'What people don't always understand is not all of that is useful.'

TechRadar said the remark raised concerns about how OpenAI is conducting operations, particularly because the tokens are paid for by the company's investors. It also noted that OpenAI expects to improve its funding in the coming months and that rival Anthropic is believed to be planning an IPO. In a competitive market for AI models and agents, the report described Steinberger's comment as somewhat ill-considered.

Steinberger's remarks on infrastructure were more technical. He said the main challenge many people still face is that infrastructure has not caught up, asking why AI workloads still use his computer rather than the cloud. He argued that more of this work should run in cloud environments, with seamless AI compute.

He also predicted that everyone will have some kind of intelligence that runs and thinks and helps them throughout the day, or predicts what could help them. The implication, as TechRadar described it, is that users might get an answer before asking the question.

On agent permissions, Steinberger said users may need at least two agents: one to do the work and another to check it and give or withhold permissions. The second agent would negotiate with the first, he said. He added that agents often conclude they should not do something or find a simpler way that stays within guardrails, and that combining the two systems greatly increases his trust that he can let an agent 'rip.'

OpenClaw's creator has worked with OpenAI on next-generation personal AI agents since February 2026, according to TechRadar.