OpenClaw creator says he spent $10 million in tokens last month

[u/Logical_Welder3467]

https://www.theregister.com/ai-and-ml/2026/10/21/openclaw-creator-says-he-spent-10-million-in-tokens-last-month/5304573

[u/Deranged40]

... and what has he got to show for that? Surely something that he can sell for much more than $10 million, right?

[u/NecroKyle_ → u/Deranged40]

On that note - this is may favourite bit from the article:

Responding to the audible surprise rising from the audience, Steinberger added, "What people don't always understand is not all of that is useful."

[u/MaxRD → u/NecroKyle_]

Oh I understand that very well, trust me!

[u/erebuxy → u/Deranged40]

If you ever read the article, you’d know he works for OpenAI

[u/SLAPHAPPY_BUTTCHEEKS → u/erebuxy]

So nothing to show for it, got it.

[u/JmoneyBS → u/SLAPHAPPY_BUTTCHEEKS]

Dots?

[u/Dave-C → u/Deranged40]

Truthfully, it depends on how much market share it gets. If it becomes popular enough it will be worth billions. If it doesn't then it might be worth millions. It will come down to if there are quality open source models that come out. Right now there are no open source models that match API based models. That doesn't mean that open models are not an option. Microsoft is already building systems so that smaller jobs can be ran local but larger jobs can be handed off to an API. If this becomes popular enough for people to host their local setups, again... billions.

[u/darkstar3333]

Sweet. Most of us and every business has 120M/year we can burn willy-nilly. 

Money is unlimited right? 

[u/wattur → u/darkstar3333]

It's not burning. Spend 10m on tokens to AI provider, then AI provider invests 10m in your project.

AI provider got 10m revenue, project got 10m funding. win/win!

[u/moconahaftmere → u/wattur]

GDP growth is when I pay you $100 to slap me and then you pay me $100 to slap you.

[u/6lmpnl → u/moconahaftmere]

Then the government comes and taxes each of you $20. Then it subsidizes the slapping-industry with $40, because its an emerging economic sector.

[u/moconahaftmere → u/6lmpnl]

They can't tax me because after expenses ($100 to get slapped) I haven't made any profit.

Even if I did make a profit my licensing fees to the offshore parent corporation to which I am a wholly owned subsidiary of would conveniently match my profits exactly.

[u/peazley → u/moconahaftmere]

I want in on this circle slap! we're going to be billionaires!

[u/meatmacho → u/moconahaftmere]

But how hard is the slap? That's the all-important economic metric: the velocity of money.

[u/nath1234 → u/darkstar3333]

You give me $100, I will give you $100. We both talk about how we made $100! Circular deals are truly amazing. Totally different to pyramid schemes too, on account of them being circular!

[u/Big_Cucumber2787]

meanwhile openclaw is still put together with a squirrel, sticks and a piece of gum

[u/InadequateUsername → u/Big_Cucumber2787]

To be fair, it's a load bearing piece of gum, it's a footgun really.

[u/spez_eats_nazi_ass → u/Big_Cucumber2787]

You forgot about the weed whacker strapped to the dog.

[u/RevenueChemical6910]

He spent $10M worth of tokens that OpenAI provided to him for free since he works there...

[u/This-Construction926]

"Instead, he suggested using an agent to authorize your agent"

• it's agents all the way down

[u/Admirable-Sink-2622]

The rich are just recycling each others money.

[u/spez_eats_nazi_ass → u/Admirable-Sink-2622]

They are absolutely increasing the cost of everything the poors need to live from this shit.

[u/dzfast → u/Admirable-Sink-2622]

The real epiphany is when you realize this is all of what money is.

It's just a means of putting a hard number to the exchange of goods and services. In and of itself it is meaningless, unless there is someone willing to trade for it.

Rich people inherently understand this and that's why money is used for things that generate more money almost exclusively at that level, at least when you consider it as a percentage of revenue or available funds.

If you have to spend most of your money on disposable things you won't ever break out of the pack.

[u/jphamlore]

Give him enough Mac Studios and he could spend $100 million or more easily? Isn't that the whole point of the project?

[u/Optimal-Wave-8301]

Steinberger is such an obvious hack.

[u/Unfair-League-3204 → u/Optimal-Wave-8301]

It’s pretty crazy watching him flush down the toilet the salary of some 50 engineers. And nothing to show…

[u/Astrochops]

What the fuck is OpenClaw

[u/leupboat420smkeit → u/Astrochops]

It’s what you would call now a harness. It lets AI models to do tasks on your computer.

[u/nerdmor → u/leupboat420smkeit]

And feeds the AIs all of your files so it can steal your data use them on the tasks you give it

Edit: I swear, every damn place has a different markdown

[u/fibericon → u/leupboat420smkeit]

Wait, if it runs locally, how the fuck did he spend 10M on it?

[u/leupboat420smkeit → u/fibericon]

The harness runs locally, but the AI models do not.

Basically, the harness tell the ai model “say ‘[DO TASK]’ to do task”, and when the ai model includes “[DO TASK]” in a response, the harness parses it and performs task.

[u/asdf_lord → u/Astrochops]

Caa Claw Claw Claw

[u/Darkgorge → u/asdf_lord]

Claw is the law

[u/dirtyshits → u/Astrochops]

Went Viral around the time of GTC earlier this year.

It’s an AI agent that can run locally that takes care of common tasks. Kind of like a personal assistant.

[u/PerformanceLimp420 → u/Astrochops]

I do it 12 times a Saturday. Without OpenClaw my white claws would just be in the fridge, not unlocking shareholders value (taking my pants off)

[u/crwcomposer → u/Astrochops]

It's what crabs do before they CloseClaw

[u/slizzbizness → u/Astrochops]

It's easier if I show you

Zzzip

[u/olujche → u/Astrochops]

Opposite of ClosedClaw

[u/gqmma]

i mean its free for him so...

[u/EnvironmentalCook520]

Can't he just buy a server and host it himself and not pay for tokens? Seems like that would be way cheaper. Might not be nearly as fast but I feel like it's the way to go. But idk Ive never self hosted an AI server.

[u/overthemountain]

No wonder Microsoft is falling behind, it was just announced that they slashed employee's AI budgets from $1m/month per person to a paltry $10k/month. They obviously should have upped it to $100m/month.

[u/Simple_Assistance_77]

Whats wrong with the guy?

[u/Muted_Masterpiece342]

This is embarrassing. He does nothing with it lol.

[u/bit_freak]

When you spend that amount of money.. I am guessing he only writes spec sheets and never actually looks at the code?

[u/Captain_N1]

if hes the creator then why is he paying in the first place.....