The growing popularity of the OpenClaw artificial intelligence tool in China is pushing up prices for secondhand Mac computers, according to industry executives.
Jeremy Ji, chief strategy officer and general manager of international business at ATRenew, a used consumer electronics buyer and reseller that partners with Apple and retailer JD.com in mainland China, said demand has surged as more people look for dedicated devices to run the software.
OpenClaw is an AI agent capable of independently carrying out personal tasks such as sending emails and making online purchases. According to American cybersecurity firm SecurityScorecard, usage of the tool in China is now surpassing that in the United States.
At the same time, the software has raised security concerns. Because OpenClaw can potentially access or alter sensitive personal data, including banking information, many users prefer to run it on a cloud server or on a separate laptop instead of their main device. This has led many Chinese consumers to seek out preowned computers, Ji said in a phone interview.
He compared the spike in demand to the pandemic period, when more people bought personal computing devices while working and spending more time at home.
Ji said that from March to May this year, ATRenew has been maintaining Apple product prices at levels usually seen during the busy fall season, when new iPhones are released. That is unusual, since prices would normally decline in the spring.
He also noted that brand-new MacBooks are usually about 15% more expensive than the used models sold through ATRenew.
Apple’s in-house chips, with the latest version known as the M5, are widely considered more power-efficient than the processors typically used in Windows-based computers. Among early OpenClaw users, the Mac Mini has emerged as a particularly popular device.
Ji said ATRenew is also seeing customers trade in MacBooks powered by older M1 and M2 chips in exchange for machines equipped with the newer M4 or M5 chips. “We do see the growing demand for laptops, PCs as a whole, but the Mac devices benefit from that trend [to try OpenClaw] above all.”
He added that demand for more powerful secondhand MacBooks remains strong, and ATRenew has had to raise its buyback prices to boost the supply of used Macs available for resale. Ji believes the momentum may last “throughout the whole year.”
OpenClaw was launched in November by Austrian developer Peter Steinberger. However, the latest spike in interest in China only began early this month, after Tencent and other Chinese technology firms used the tool to attract more users.
While Ji declined to disclose the exact number of MacBooks processed since late February, he said ATRenew handled an average of about 100,000 devices per day last year. He expects laptops, MacBooks and other personal computing products to make up 20% of the company’s business, up from 15% currently.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also praised the software in an interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Tuesday, calling OpenClaw “definitely the next ChatGPT.”
“It is now the largest, most popular, the most successful open-sourced project in the history of humanity,” Huang said.
Beyond computers, rising demand for AI-related computing power has also pushed up the price of memory chips, an essential component in both smartphones and laptops.
Ji said that increase in chip prices is also encouraging more consumers in China to buy used Apple iPhones instead of premium Android smartphones.
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