--- title: "China's \"lobster farming\" has caused such a sensation that the whole world has been amazed." type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/278797193.md" description: "China's \"lobster farming\" craze, driven by the AI software OpenClaw, has captivated global investors. Goldman Sachs' Philip Sun noted a staggering 740% IPO increase for MiniMax within two months, highlighting the rapid adoption of AI in China. The phenomenon has attracted diverse users, from engineers to housewives, all eager to utilize AI for various tasks. OpenClaw's capabilities have led to a surge in interest, with events and sharing sessions proliferating across major cities. This trend reflects a significant cultural shift towards embracing AI technology in everyday life." datetime: "2026-03-12T00:47:29.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/278797193.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/278797193.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/278797193.md) --- # China's "lobster farming" has caused such a sensation that the whole world has been amazed. Author: Dong Jing An open-source AI agent software has sparked a nationwide "lobster farming" craze in China, shocking the world. A sales memo from Wall Street has brought the phenomenon of "lobster farming" in China to the attention of global investors. Philip Sun, a sales representative for Goldman Sachs Asia, wrote in the memo that almost everyone in China is now "farming lobsters," and the speed and enthusiasm with which the Chinese embrace AI is truly astonishing. In his memo, he stated bluntly: "The Chinese AI company MiniMax has set a personal record for me—I've never worked on a project whose IPO saw a 740% increase in value within two months." Philip Sun believes that the driving force behind this is inextricably linked to the current "lobster farming" craze sweeping China. Meanwhile, on the American forum Reddit, a post about the long line of people installing computers outside Tencent's headquarters in Shenzhen received over a thousand likes, and the comment section was filled with bewildered foreign netizens: "This scale, is it insane?" **** ## Goldman Sachs salesman "broke down": He'd never seen an IPO like this in his life On March 11, 2026, Philip Sun, a sales representative in Goldman Sachs (Asia)'s Global Banking and Markets division, sent a memo to clients titled "Train your own 'Lobsters'". ...span\> The very first sentence sent shockwaves through the market: "MiniMax has set a personal record for me. In all my Asian IPOs, I've never seen a stock rise 740% in two months." The numbers speak for themselves—MiniMax listed at HK$165 on January 9, 2026, and by March 11, it was trading at HK$1220. Two months, 740%. At the same time, another Chinese AI company, ZhiPu AI, went public on January 8, with a 560% increase in two months. (MiniMax weekly chart Source: Wind) Philip In his memo, Sun specifically mentioned that they launched their management roadshow on December 29th, and the final roadshow in Hong Kong at 3 PM on December 31st was still packed—even on New Year's Eve, people in the financial industry were in meetings vying for projects. This veteran who has witnessed countless Asian IPOs couldn't help but add several exclamation marks in the memo, using the phrase "Quite amazing." MiniMax, a company with an average employee age of 29, now boasts a market capitalization comparable to Baidu. Nearly a thousand people lined up outside a shop in Shenzhen just to get a "lobster." What impressed Philip Sun wasn't just the stock price. Another scene he described in his memo was what truly ignited global attention—Tencent employees set up a stall outside their Shenzhen headquarters, offering free installation of OpenClaw on computers for passersby. **What is OpenClaw?**This is an open-source AI agent software developed by Austrian programmer Peter Steinberg, and its logo is a lobster. ... Unlike ordinary chatbots, OpenClaw is designed as a truly "doing" AI—it can clean up users' emails, process files, write code, post on social media, and even automatically complete complex tasks 24/7. Even Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang himself said at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference in San Francisco: "OpenClaw may be the most important single software release ever." This "lobster" entered China and instantly caused a sensation. At the event outside Tencent's headquarters in Shenzhen, among the nearly one thousand attendees were retired aerospace engineers, housewives, students, and AI enthusiasts—the very presence of so many "atypical users" in one setting speaks volumes. Shanghai designer Mark Yang said that after using OpenClaw, he felt like he had a group of "virtual employees," and he no longer had to do many things himself. Entrepreneur Fu Sheng, while recovering from a skiing accident and bed rest during the Spring Festival, spent 14 days building an AI assistant called "Sanwan" based on OpenClaw: Within 4 minutes, it sent New Year's greetings to over 600 friends; its social media posts garnered millions of views overnight; and the website sanwan.ai itself was designed, coded, and launched by Sanwan itself. His observation was: "None of the human employees would respond immediately, but it's different. You say it, and it moves instantly." Even Philip Sun of Goldman Sachs remarked that the young Chinese investors he'd encountered already had several "lobsters" at their disposal: one responsible for summarizing market news every morning, another for analyzing whether investment decisions were too emotional, and there was even a "supervisory lobster" specifically responsible for watching the other lobsters work. The word he used was: Fascinating (So fascinating) The "Lobster Farming" craze has spread from programmer circles to the elderly. Chinese people have given this phenomenon a down-to-earth name—"Lobster Farming." In Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou… from online to offline, various OpenClaw sharing sessions and PC building events have sprung up like mushrooms after rain. A meetup organized by friends in Hangzhou for OpenClaw was so crowded that entry was impossible, so they had to limit the number of attendees. They then moved the event to Shenzhen, where over 900 people registered. People are selling computer installation services on platforms like Xiaohongshu and WeChat, with prices ranging from tens to hundreds of yuan, and demand still exceeds supply. What truly astonishes foreigners is how this trend has broken down barriers between groups. On the American forum Reddit, a user shared that his grandfather uses AI-generated greeting images to send to the family group chat every morning. Another user hit the nail on the head: "You don't understand how accepted AI is in China." Someone else joked: "For free events, the elderly will definitely go, even if they don't know what it is." American netizen sean\_hash commented in the comment section: "From the announcement to the large-scale installation event in Shenzhen, only 72 hours passed. This deployment speed is hard to replicate elsewhere." After watching videos of Shenzhen's brightly lit nights and the city's AI boom, some netizens were completely dismayed: "As an American, look at Shenzhen, then look at Baltimore. It feels like we're living in two different centuries." A netizen from Vietnam said that Asia's attitude towards AI is generally positive, and seeing the enthusiasm in China, they're basically just following suit. One netizen even commented, "Should I start teaching my daughter Chinese?" Why China, of all places? On the surface, it appears to be a nationwide celebration, but there is actually a clear logical chain behind it. First, the public narratives are different. In China, AI has been consistently defined as an economic growth opportunity, written into the Five-Year Plan, and appeared in the Premier's Government Work Report—this year at the Two Sessions, the Government Work Report explicitly proposed "promoting the accelerated application of new-generation intelligent terminals and AI intelligent agents, and encouraging the large-scale commercial application of artificial intelligence in key areas." One observer pointed out that China's public narrative on AI is highly unified; in contrast, discussions about AI in the United States are more fragmented. Western observers offer this analysis: A generation in Europe and America grew up watching movies like \*The Terminator\* and \*The Matrix\*; the fear of machines disrupting humanity is deeply ingrained in their culture. Meanwhile, the Chinese have witnessed industrialization and urbanization transform their lives from poverty to what they are today; their instinctive reaction to new technologies is, "It will make my life better." Secondly, the cost and barriers to entry are low. OpenClaw is open source, and Chinese cloud vendors have made deployment services "one-click installation." Alibaba, ByteDance, and Baidu have all launched user-friendly configuration solutions, and Tencent employees are even setting up stalls to install it for people. Coupled with high-performance, cost-effective domestic platforms like Tongyi Qianwen and DeepSeek as a foundation, ordinary users don't need to understand code; they can start "raising shrimp" simply by scanning a QR code. From GitHub code repositories to mini-programs, this is a case of life's logic overwhelming technological logic. Thirdly, the speed of platform ecosystem integration is unparalleled. Enterprise WeChat, DingTalk, Lark, and Taobao—major platforms have almost simultaneously integrated the OpenClaw architecture. This means that "crayfish farming" isn't just something done in an isolated tool, but is directly embedded into the daily work and life of hundreds of millions of people. Tencent is reportedly also developing an AI agent specifically for WeChat mini-programs, directly competing with Tongyi Qianwen and Doubao. Fourth, local governments are offering large-scale subsidies to "crayfish farmers." As previously mentioned, cities like Shenzhen, Suzhou, and Hefei introduced subsidy policies for the OpenClaw project, built industrial parks, and provided support funds to "one-person companies" within days of the initial surge in interest. The speed at which a technology could move from the programmer community to government documents in just a few days is unimaginable anywhere else in the world. This isn't the first time, and it won't be the last. From shared bikes to mobile payments, from live-streaming e-commerce to today's "lobster farming," the "standard template" of China's technology ecosystem has never changed: it may not be the first to invent, but it must be the first to achieve the largest scale, the fastest implementation, and the most aggressive commercialization. Academics call this the "second actor advantage"—you don't need to burn money and make mistakes; once the technology matures, you use stronger execution and a more complete ecosystem to scale it up into infrastructure that changes the lives of hundreds of millions of people. While OpenClaw is largely a "cool toy" within geek circles in the West, in China it has become a "national infrastructure" used by retired engineers, housewives, and students alike. Goldman Sachs salespeople were astonished, Reddit users were stunned, and Jensen Huang declared it "the most important software ever," but few anticipated that the people of China would be the ones truly enjoying this innovation. The highest level of technology is never about solitary contemplation in the laboratory—it's about stepping into everyday life and changing the lives of millions. Amidst the booming popularity, safe "lobster farming" is needed. However, amidst this booming popularity, the first batch of victims of "lobster farming" have recently emerged. After the OpenClaw ("Lobster") AI agent became wildly popular, security issues arose, such as unauthorized email deletion, privacy leaks, and API key theft, triggering user concerns and a wave of uninstallations. The official website has issued a risk warning, pointing out four serious risks. Experts advise users to use it with caution and strengthen security protection from aspects such as version updates and permission control. ### Related Stocks - [GS.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/GS.US.md) - [00100.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/00100.HK.md) ## Related News & Research - [16:45 ETMadison Air Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering](https://longbridge.com/en/news/282897893.md) - [Soft drink producer Suja Life files for a $100 million IPO](https://longbridge.com/en/news/282381383.md) - ['Deep Left-Tail Should Be Bounded': Goldman's Hedge Fund Honcho Lays Out Portfolio Context For The Next Few Months](https://longbridge.com/en/news/282568711.md) - [Arcline-Backed Arxis Announces Pricing of its Initial Public Offering](https://longbridge.com/en/news/282920303.md) - [Goldman Sachs stock analysis and earnings preview: will GS hit $1,000?](https://longbridge.com/en/news/282474281.md)