Artificial Intelligence1 min read

OpenAI disbands its robotics team as its general models start running robots

By · Published by Everything Blog

In short

OpenAI integrated its robotics researchers into its main research division and moved applied staff under President Greg Brockman. The strategy change follows findings that general frontier models perform robotic tasks effectively, replacing previous plans to rely on video generators like Sora. Amid quarterly operating losses of $10.9 billion, Chief Executive Sam Altman is prioritizing profitable initiatives and reallocating critical computing resources. The company left its reserved booth empty at this week's CoRL academic robotics conference in Austin during the reorganization.

Key points

  • General-purpose frontier artificial intelligence models like GPT-6 Astra are now deemed c…: General-purpose frontier artificial intelligence models like GPT-6 Astra are now deemed capable of directly controlling robotic systems.
  • Heavy quarterly operating losses reaching $10.9 billion have pushed OpenAI to abandon non…: Heavy quarterly operating losses reaching $10.9 billion have pushed OpenAI to abandon nonessential initiatives ahead of an anticipated IPO.
  • OpenAI plans to stage a public demonstration of an in-house humanoid robot sometime durin…: OpenAI plans to stage a public demonstration of an in-house humanoid robot sometime during 2027.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

OpenAI has disbanded its stand-alone robotics team, moving its researchers onto other teams.

The company confirmed the reorganization when asked about it by Fortune. A company spokesperson said that robotics remains a core part of OpenAI’s long-term vision and portrayed the reorganization as a sign of the company’s commitment to robotics, rather than a retreat from it.

OpenAI said it has reassigned its robotics research team to the company’s main research team, reporting to Chief Research Officer Mark Chen, while the applied robotics and hardware teams have been reassigned to the company’s larger Applied organization, which reports to OpenAI President Greg Brockman.

The change came recently enough that OpenAI had already registered a booth at CoRL, a top academic robotics conference in Austin, this week. Though the conference app and floor plan marked OpenAI’s spot, when Fortune visited booth #208, it sat empty with OpenAI’s logo nowhere to be seen.

OpenAI had a robotics team in its early days but wound it down in 2020, with cofounder Wojciech Zaremba later citing limited robot data and a more efficient path toward…

Artificial Intelligence