A single download statistic sparked an all-out flame war between two major open-source agent frameworks. Peter Steinberger, creator of OpenClaw, fired the first shot by tweeting that OpenClaw had transformed into a nonprofit foundation to prioritize quality — while its rivals, he claimed, are VC-funded and "have ulterior motives."
https://twitter.com/Teknium/status/2069007211087675756
Teknium, co-founder of Nous Research, wasn't having it. He shot back that OpenAI's own nonprofit facade crumbled years ago, and that Steinberger himself is collecting millions in VC-funded salary — indirectly from OpenAI — while pretending to be above the fray. Same corporate playbook, different logo.
The fight laid bare the messy financial realities behind both projects. OpenClaw restructured as an independent nonprofit, but it's bankrolled by OpenAI cash and tokens, and Steinberger now works for OpenAI. Meanwhile, Nous Research — home to the popular Hermes Agent — is straight-up VC-backed.
On the same day, Nous Research boasted that Hermes Agent crossed 200,000 GitHub stars. OpenClaw once rode the Mac mini deployment hype to 380,000 stars, but lately users have been flooding forums with crash complaints after updates. Hermes Agent, steadier in coding and multi-agent setups, is quietly stealing developers away.