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What if your next co-worker isn't a human, but a robot? And what if that robot was built by OpenAI? The company behind ChatGPT is taking a significant step into the world of physical robotics, with CEO Sam Altman announcing a fresh hiring drive aimed at building robots designed to help people in the real world.
The move marks one of OpenAI's clearest signals yet that its ambitions extend far beyond software and conversational AI.
In a post on X, Altman revealed that the newly formed OpenAI Robotics team is looking for engineers across hardware, machine learning, systems and operations to help design, build and manufacture robots that are "useful for society".
OpenAI Robotics is hiring, looking for exceptional full-stack hardware, ops, systems, and ML engineers to help us program and manufacture robots that are useful for society.
AI should be able to help people in the physical world.
In the short term, we are focused on robots to… — Sam Altman (@sama) May 31, 2026 The announcement arrives at a time when humanoid robots are rapidly moving from science fiction into everyday reality, with countries such as China and South Korea already making significant strides in the field.
OpenAI is hiring to build AI-powered robots: How can you apply? Altman said OpenAI believes AI should eventually be able to assist people in the physical world, not just on screens.
"In the short term, we are focused on robots to support skilled workers to build our future infrastructure; in the long term, we imagine everyone having a personal robot doing anything they need," he wrote.
According to Altman, OpenAI's robotics effort has evolved from its world simulation research programme, led by researcher Aditya Ramesh.
The initiative has now grown....
