Feng Qingyang, a 27-year-old Beijing software engineer, quit his job after his side hustle installing the OpenClaw AI agent exploded. He now runs a 100-employee company that has completed 7,000 orders at about $34 each. His business, like dozens of others, fills a gap for non-technical users eager to adopt the powerful but complex tool.

The AI tool, nicknamed "lobster" for its logo, has become a nationwide phenomenon. Livestreams attract tens of thousands, and unofficial events in cities like Shenzhen regularly overflow. Major players like Tencent now offer free installation help, while the Longgang district government provides computing credits and cash rewards for related projects.

What's making this moment so lucrative is the significant technical hurdle to setup. Installing OpenClaw requires command-line knowledge and careful hardware configuration to mitigate privacy risks. This has spawned a cottage industry of support services and preconfigured hardware sales, particularly on secondhand markets. The frenzy shows massive public appetite for AI, even as security trade-offs become a secondary concern for many new users.