OpenClaw “Crayfish” creator Steinberg speaks out: hopes Baidu (百度) will provide development support, not just deployment

Peter Steinberger, creator of OpenClaw (小龙虾) — often called “Crayfish” in English — publicly urged Baidu (百度) to do more than host deployments after the Chinese search giant’s recent “Lobster Market” event in Beijing. Steinberger posted on X that the events were “great” and welcomed maintainers and sponsors, then asked bluntly: can Baidu also support OpenClaw’s development, not only its deployment? Short question. Big implication.

Baidu says it wants to engage

Baidu responded by saying OpenClaw’s progress had impressed the company and that it would like to contact Steinberger to explore collaborative development. It has been reported that Baidu has already provided a sponsorship to the OpenClaw community “to express respect,” and the company says it hopes to further support the OpenClaw Foundation through sponsorship, maintenance, or other forms of cooperation. Reportedly, Baidu views the exchange as a starting point for more substantive technical collaboration.

Why it matters

It has been reported that OpenClaw’s surge in popularity has prompted domestic cloud providers — including Tencent (腾讯) and Baidu — to push their own “crayfish farming” platforms and run local workshops teaching users how to deploy the project. Why the rush? Partly it’s a product story: easy deployment attracts customers. Partly it’s geopolitical: China’s cloud and AI firms are racing to build robust local stacks amid a global AI competition and tightening export controls on some Western chips and software. The key question for open‑source watchers now is whether corporate sponsorship will translate into code contributions and sustained maintenance — or remain primarily an infrastructure and marketing play.