36Kr reports OpenAI disbanded its robotics organization; Fortune confirms reorganization

In an article published Nov. 15, 2026, 36Kr reported that OpenAI disbanded its in-house robotics team. The outlet described it as a second disbandment, five months after Sam Altman called for hiring in May, but the provided excerpt contains no further details.

Fortune reported that OpenAI disbanded its standalone robotics team and moved researchers to other teams, while a spokesperson said robotics remains central to the company’s long-term vision. The team’s organizational independence and whether research is continuing are separate questions. Without information on where researchers were reassigned or the status of hardware development, it is not possible to determine how OpenAI’s approach to robotics has changed.

The focus of the reports is not whether OpenAI’s entire robotics effort has ended, but whether it reorganized by no longer maintaining an independent team and moving researchers or development functions to other groups. The 36Kr excerpt reports the team’s dissolution but does not identify the receiving teams or the scope of the changes. Fortune, in an article dated Nov. 13, reported the dissolution of a standalone robotics team and the transfer of researchers to other teams, saying an OpenAI spokesperson confirmed the reorganization. The company said robotics remains central to its long-term vision, according to the report. The dissolution of an organizational unit therefore cannot, by itself, be read as a withdrawal from robotics research. The headline of the 36Kr article says “GPT-6 Astra” has significantly changed the industry, but the provided excerpt does not describe GPT-6 Astra or give specific examples of robots in operation, so the claim cannot be verified. Fortune’s headline about a general model powering robots also cannot be assessed from the provided materials: they do not establish the model’s approach, performance on physical robots or scope of application. No causal link between the organizational reorganization and the model’s capabilities has been confirmed, so for now the headline claims should be considered separately from the organizational information that can be verified. A report published around the same time, Panasonic Holdings and others jointly develop “T-Rex,” a tactile-responsive AI for bimanual tasks (published Nov. 15, 2026), covered AI for bimanual tasks that responds to tactile input. However, the provided article summary does not identify the robots or methods used, or their performance, so a technical comparison with OpenAI’s reorganization is not possible. Another report, NEXCOM and NexCOBOT reportedly to present RoboWIZ and four technology partners at GTC Berlin (published Nov. 14, 2026), said the companies introduced a platform that includes a computing foundation for robotics. No information links it to OpenAI. These reports may offer context for considering how robotics organizations differ across companies, but they do not indicate the relative merits of specific technologies or businesses. The available reports do not make clear how much of the research, applications and hardware functions were moved together, or which organization will continue robotics-related development. The next points to confirm are: (1) the scope and reporting lines of the reassigned research, applications and hardware teams; (2) whether research and development involving physical robots is continuing; and (3) whether specific technical or implementation information links GPT-6 Astra to robot operation.