Once suppressed by the narrative of &#34;AI devouring SaaS,&#34; the software sector is now undergoing a round of value reassessment: the Token explosion brought by AI Agents is shifting the value focus of software from &#34;function presentation&#34; to &#34;process orchestration, data, and permission governance,&#34; with infrastructure and platform software likely to be the first to capture the incremental growth.
The latest catalyst from the industry side comes from OpenClaw's breakout. According to HSBC Qianhai, the Token call volume of AI Agents can reach up to 15 times that of chat interactions, with the weekly Token call volume on the OpenRouter platform rising to 14.8 trillion in the week of March 2, a growth of about 160% within two months. The monetization of AI applications and the curve of computing power consumption are being elevated simultaneously.
For the A-share market, HSBC Qianhai Securities believes that the strong growth in Token call volume will enhance the demand for AI software infrastructure and IDC, with Chinese models continuously increasing their global Token share due to higher cost-effectiveness.
<h2>AI Agents from &#34;Chatting&#34; to &#34;Execution&#34;: Amplifying Token Consumption</h2>
HSBC Qianhai Securities believes that as the capabilities of foundational models in productivity tasks improve, AI Agents are becoming the &#34;first blockbuster AI application.&#34; OpenClaw is a representative case, capable of automatically completing tasks such as software installation, script execution, file organization, and web monitoring.
The heat and usage are rising in tandem. HSBC Qianhai Securities disclosed that since its release in November 2025, OpenClaw has surpassed 299,000 stars on GitHub, exceeding well-known open-source projects like Linux and React.
More critically, the consumption structure is changing: according to Anthropic data, the Token consumption of AI Agents can reach up to 15 times that of chat interactions, making Tokens a &#34;hard indicator&#34; for measuring AI application penetration.
Data from OpenRouter reinforces this trend. HSBC Qianhai Securities pointed out that, driven by individual users and enterprises actively deploying multi-agent systems like OpenClaw, the weekly Token call volume on the OpenRouter platform has rapidly increased since early 2026, reaching 14.8 trillion in the week of March 2.
<img src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://wpimg-wscn.awtmt.com/881d7c4c-448c-479c-a3d7-cc36a75b31f6.png?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg" alt="" original-src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://wpimg-wscn.awtmt.com/881d7c4c-448c-479c-a3d7-cc36a75b31f6.png"/>
<h2>Chinese Models Seizing Market Share: Cost Advantages Amplifying Infrastructure and IDC Resilience</h2>
HSBC Qianhai Securities noted that since February 2026, Chinese models such as Zhipu GLM5, Minimax M2.5, and Kimi K2.5 have been continuously capturing Token share from American large models due to their performance and cost-effectiveness advantages.
According to OpenRouter data, in the week of February 9, the Token weekly call volume of Chinese models among the top 9 models on OpenRouter exceeded that of American models for the first time
<img src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://wpimg-wscn.awtmt.com/9d7bc7ca-0491-4784-b88b-3c536ecefcb2.png?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg" alt="" original-src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://wpimg-wscn.awtmt.com/9d7bc7ca-0491-4784-b88b-3c536ecefcb2.png"/>
The pricing system is also driving penetration. The mainstream AI programming service subscription packages organized by HSBC Qianhai Securities show that under similar usage limits, the monthly subscription pricing of Chinese vendors is about 20% to 30% of that of overseas vendors, making cost efficiency an important variable driving Token migration.
HSBC Qianhai Securities predicts that the strong growth in Token usage will increase the demand for AI software infrastructure, and hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) and software-defined storage (SDS) may welcome structural opportunities; at the same time, the growth in computing demand brought about by the popularity of AI Agents is expected to drive order growth for domestic IDC suppliers.
<h2>OpenClaw Breaks Out: Agents are not replacement software, but a &#34;call layer&#34; that covers it</h2>
Shenwan Hongyuan Research points out that OpenClaw is positioned as a personal AI assistant that can connect to various communication channels such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Feishu, and manages conversations, tools, events, and skills through a local Gateway, reflecting that Agents are moving towards an &#34;executable&#34; product form.
From an architectural perspective, OpenClaw performs authentication, orchestration, configuration management, and log processing through a local WebSocket Gateway, with applications and devices connecting as nodes and exposing command execution, message sending and receiving, and device capabilities to the Agent.
Shenwan Hongyuan believes that Agents are not a new species detached from software, but an &#34;intelligent call layer&#34; and &#34;task orchestration layer&#34; built on existing software, data, and permission structures, with core value in enhancing automation and process management efficiency.
According to Shenwan Hongyuan Research, the pressure on the software sector previously mainly stemmed from AI rewriting the valuation framework rather than a deterioration in fundamentals. At the beginning of the year, investors were concerned that general large models and general Agents would bypass traditional SaaS interfaces, directly eroding functional value and user stickiness, even forming an extreme narrative of &#34;the end of SaaS.&#34;
The marginal change is that the implementation of enterprise-level Agents does not mean &#34;accessing the model will take effect,&#34; but requires deep integration with enterprise data and permission control, setting up security protections, and achieving observability, assessability, and auditability.
Software companies are not passively taking hits; instead, they are quickly productizing Agents by leveraging their existing process entry points and data barriers. ServiceNow clearly emphasizes that its AI Agents are built-in, placing AI agents, data, and workflows on a single platform, unifying third-party Agents.
The software sector currently resembles the early stage of recovery after an emotional bottom: the pessimistic narrative has not completely disappeared, but indiscriminate selling is no longer the case, and the market is beginning to assess who is least impacted and even who can benefit from the wave of AI.

600536

HSBC Qianhai pointed out that the emergence of OpenClaw has driven a surge in Token consumption, with demand elasticity for AI infrastructure and IDC business on the rise. Chinese models are continuously increasing their global Token share due to higher cost-effectiveness

From "devouring" to "benefiting," CS&S is expected to enjoy "lobster meat"!