Attendees bring their laptops to install the OpenClaw AI agent during a Baidu event in Beijing, China, Tuesday, March 17, 2026.
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BEIJING — So many people in China are rushing to try out the artificial intelligence tool OpenClaw that they’re driving up the price of used Mac computers.
This is what Jeremy Ji, Chief Strategy Officer and General Manager of International Business at ATRenewa buyer and reseller of used consumer electronics working with Apple and retailers JD.com on mainland China.
OpenClaw is an AI agent, a tool that can autonomously handle personal tasks such as sending emails and shopping online. According to American cybersecurity company SecurityScorecard, usage in China is currently higher than in the US.
However, the free-to-download software also poses security risks, leading many users to run OpenClaw on a cloud computing server or laptop separate from their primary device. If the AI agent had direct access to a personal computer, it could independently change private data such as banking information or allow hackers to access it more easily.
“As people in China jump on the OpenClaw trend, they are turning to used computers,” Ji said in a telephone interview.
He compared the surge in demand to the pandemic, when many people bought more PC devices as they worked and spent more time at home.
As a result, Ji said that from March to May this year, ATRenew will keep its prices for Apple products similar to the peak fall season around new iPhone releases. This is in contrast to a typical spring price drop.
Ji said prices for a new MacBook are typically 15% higher than used ones sold through ATRenew.
Apple’s self-developed chips, the latest of which is called M5, are generally more energy efficient than chips for computers with Windows systems. For early OpenClaw users, Apple’s Mac Mini was the most popular hardware.
ATRenew’s Ji said the company is seeing people trade in their MacBooks with older M1 and M2 chips for computers with the M4 or M5 chip. “We are seeing growing demand for laptops and PCs overall, but Mac devices are benefiting from this trend.” [to try OpenClaw] above all.”
Consumer interest in more powerful used MacBooks is “still very strong,” Ji said, noting that ATRenew had to increase its device buyback price to increase the supply of used Macs available for purchase. He predicted this trend could continue “all year long.”
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An Austrian developer, Peter Steinberger, launched OpenClaw in November. But the latest wave of interest in China only picked up earlier this month Tencent and other Chinese tech companies used OpenClaw to attract more users.
ATRenew’s Ji declined to reveal the exact volume of MacBooks processed since the end of February, but noted that the average number of devices processed by the company was about 100,000 per day last year. He assumes that the share of MacBooks and other laptops or PC devices could increase from the current 15% to 20%.
Jensen Huang, CEO of the US chip giant NvidiaCNBC’s Jim Cramer said Tuesday that OpenClaw is “definitely the next ChatGPT.”
“It is now the largest, most popular and most successful open source project in human history,” Huang said.
General demand for AI computing power has also driven up prices for memory chips, a key component of smartphones and laptops.
The increase in chip prices has particularly encouraged more consumers in China to buy used Apple smartphones instead of flagship Android-based devices, Ji said.
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