OpenAI has disbanded its stand-alone robotics team and moved its researchers onto other teams, the company confirmed to Fortune, which reported the change Friday, Nov. 13. A spokesperson said robotics remains a core part of OpenAI’s long-term vision and described the change as a sign of commitment, not a retreat.[1]
Related: OpenAI’s Funding and Valuation.
Where the team went
Robotics researchers now report to the main research team under Chief Research Officer Mark Chen, while the applied robotics and hardware teams moved into OpenAI’s Applied organization under President Greg Brockman.[1] The change came so recently that OpenAI’s booth at the CoRL robotics conference in Austin this week sat empty.[1]
Why OpenAI made the change
OpenAI said its general-purpose models, including GPT-6 Astra, have shown they can be applied directly to robots, which led it to drop a separate robotics effort.[1] In an Nvidia study, an Astra-powered agent reached a 74.8% success rate on a simulated manipulation benchmark, compared with 51.0% for the best specialized robot models on that leaderboard.[1]
Carnegie Mellon assistant professor Guanya Shi said the move suggests OpenAI sees robotics as “no longer a special problem.”[1] OpenAI says it is still developing its own humanoid robot, with CEO Sam Altman targeting a first public demonstration in 2027.[1]
The history and the pressure
OpenAI wound down an earlier robotics team in 2020, rebuilt one in 2024 with a partnership with Figure, and saw that partnership end in February 2025.[1] The company is under pressure to cut costs and focus on core products, with operating losses reportedly totaling $10.9 billion in the latest quarter, as it seeks new funding and prepares for a possible IPO in early 2027.[1]
Some robotics leaders see limits to that bet. MIT professor Russ Tedrake, CEO of Walden Robotics, said companies with robots already working on factory floors gain data the AI labs lack.[1] Read more on OpenAI’s latest valuation and in AI news.
Sources
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