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Article: Chinese tech giants offer cheap, easy access to OpenClaw amid ‘lobster fever’

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6 / 10

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Chinese tech giants like Tencent, Alibaba, and ByteDance are making the open-source AI agent software OpenClaw cheap and easy to access, fueling a surge of interest dubbed "lobster fever." Tencent launched a WeChat-connected AI assistant, while Alibaba and ByteDance's cloud units released low-cost deployment options and simplified versions for developers.

This trend has significantly boosted the stock prices of AI firms MiniMax and Zhipu AI, which have integrated their own tools with the OpenClaw ecosystem.

The main topics covered are the competitive rollout of OpenClaw-based products by major Chinese tech companies, the resulting stock market surges for related AI firms, and the specific tools and pricing strategies being introduced to capitalize on the trend.

Original URL

https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3346090/chinese-tech-giants-offer-cheap-easy-access-openclaw-amid-lobster-fever?utm_source=rss_feed

Source Feed

Tech - South China Morning Post

Published Date

2026-03-10 09:00

Fetched Date

2026-03-10 06:30

Processed Date

2026-03-10 06:31

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Present

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Not Clustered

Raw Extracted Content

Chinese tech giants offer cheap, easy access to OpenClaw amid ‘lobster fever’
Shares of Hong Kong-listed MiniMax and Zhipu AI surge after launching OpenClaw tools
Chinese technology firms, including internet giants Tencent Holdings, Alibaba Group Holding and ByteDance, are offering easy or inexpensive access to OpenClaw, the popular open-source AI agent software amid a “lobster fever” in the country.
Tencent on Tuesday officially launched QClaw, an artificial intelligence assistant built on OpenClaw that can connect to the company’s super app WeChat. After download and installation on a computer that takes about three minutes, users can remotely control their laptop by sending a command via WeChat on the phone, according to its website.
Shares of Hong Kong-listed AI companies MiniMax and Zhipu AI surged 22 per cent and 13 per cent, respectively, on Tuesday, as they took steps to incorporate OpenClaw tools. MiniMax integrated its voice and music generators with the OpenClaw ecosystem, while Zhipu released AutoClaw, which can deploy a local version of OpenClaw within one minute.
Alibaba on Monday released a comprehensive guide for integrating OpenClaw with DingTalk, its enterprise communication platform. DingTalk is offering unlimited API calls, or interactions, with OpenClaw until March 31.
Meanwhile, Alibaba Cloud, the company’s cloud unit, has launched tutorials and resources that allow developers to deploy OpenClaw for as low as 9.9 yuan (US$1.4). Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
TikTok owner ByteDance’s cloud unit Volcano Engine on Monday unveiled ArkClaw, marketing it as an “out-of-the-box” version of OpenClaw that runs entirely in the cloud, eliminating the need for complex local environment configuration.