At a Baidu event in Beijing, China on Tuesday, March 17, 2026, attendees brought their laptops to install the OpenClaw AI agent.
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BEIJING — Prices for used Mac computers are soaring in China as so many people rush to try out the artificial intelligence tool OpenClaw.
So says Jeremy Gee, chief strategy officer and head of international operations. AT updateWe are a used home appliance buyer and reseller affiliated with. apple and retailers JD.com In mainland China.
OpenClaw is an AI agent and tool that can autonomously perform personal tasks such as sending emails or shopping online. According to the American cybersecurity firm Security Scorecard, usage in China now exceeds that in the United States.
However, the free downloadable software also comes with security risks, leading many users to run OpenClaw on a cloud computing server or laptop separate from their primary device. If given direct access to computers, AI agents could autonomously change personal data such as banking information, and hackers could more easily access personal data.
People in China are jumping on the OpenClaw trend and turning to used computers, Ji said in a phone interview.
He likened the surge in demand to the pandemic, explaining that many people were buying more personal computing devices as they worked and spent more time at home.
As a result, from March to May this year, ATRenew has kept the prices of Apple products similar to the fall peak season, around the release of new iPhones, Ji said. This is in contrast to the typical price decline in the spring.
Ji said the price of a new MacBook is typically 15% higher than a used one sold through ATRenew.
Apple’s self-developed chips (the latest one is called M5) are generally more power efficient than chips for computers running Windows systems. For early adopters of OpenClaw, the popular hardware was Apple’s Mac Mini.
ATRenew’s Ji said the company is seeing more people replacing MacBooks with older M1 and M2 chips for computers with M4 or M5 chips. “We’re certainly seeing increased demand for laptops and PCs overall, but Mac devices are benefiting from that trend more than anything else.”
Consumer interest in more powerful used MacBooks “remains very strong,” Ji said, noting that ATRenew will need to increase purchase prices for devices to increase the supply of used Macs available for purchase. He predicted this trend could continue “throughout the year.”
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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 technology companies used OpenClaw as a way to attract more users.
ATRenew’s Ji declined to reveal the exact number of MacBooks processed since late February, but said the average number of devices processed by the company last year was about 100,000 per day. He predicts the share of MacBooks and other laptops and personal computing devices could grow to 20% from the current 15%.
Jensen Huang, CEO of the American semiconductor giant Nvidiatold CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Tuesday that OpenClaw is “definitely the next ChatGPT.”
“This is now the largest, most popular, and most successful open source project in human history,” Huang said.
Overall demand for AI computing power is also driving up the price of memory chips, a key component of smartphones and laptops.
Rising chip prices have led more consumers, especially in China, to buy second-hand Apple smartphones instead of flagship Android-based devices, Ji said.
