OpenAI quietly rebuilds robotics team with humanoid focus after 5-year break

OpenAI is quietly rebuilding its robotics team after shuttering the division in 2020, with new hiring patterns suggesting the company may be targeting humanoid robot development. The move signals a renewed focus on physical AI systems as part of OpenAI’s broader push toward artificial general intelligence, potentially positioning the company to compete in the rapidly expanding robotics market.

What you should know: OpenAI began posting robotics job openings in January 2025, marking its return to the field after a five-year hiatus.

• Job listings reveal the company is assembling a team focused on training robots through teleoperation (remote human control) and simulation techniques.
• The positions also seek engineers with expertise in sensing technologies and rapid prototyping capabilities.
• OpenAI describes the team’s mission as building “general-purpose robots” that could accelerate progress toward AGI.

The humanoid connection: While OpenAI hasn’t explicitly confirmed its focus on humanoid systems, recent hiring patterns strongly suggest this direction.

• The company recruited Stanford researcher Chengshu Li, who previously worked on benchmarks specifically for humanoid household robots.
• This specialized expertise indicates OpenAI’s robotics efforts likely center on human-like robotic systems rather than industrial or specialized machines.

Why this matters: OpenAI’s re-entry into robotics comes at a critical time when the field is experiencing renewed investment and technological breakthroughs.

• The company originally abandoned robotics work in 2020, citing insufficient training data as the primary obstacle.
• Five years later, advances in AI training methods and the availability of more comprehensive datasets have apparently addressed these earlier limitations.
• Success in general-purpose robotics could provide OpenAI with a significant competitive advantage in the race toward AGI, as physical world interaction remains a crucial component of artificial intelligence development.