TECH

Chinese Tech Giants Offer Free OpenClaw Installations to Boost Cloud Services

Published: Mar. 9, 2026 7:14 p.m. GMT+8

00:00

00:00/00:00

Listen to this article 1x

Major Chinese tech companies including Tencent Holdings Ltd. and ByteDance Ltd. are rolling out free installation services and tutorials for the globally viral open-source AI assistant OpenClaw in an effort to attract more cloud services customers.

The moves highlight a new battleground for China’s cloud providers, which are leveraging the complex technical setup of the AI assistant to drive adoption of their computing resources.

You've accessed an article available only to subscribers

Subscribe today for just $.99.

VIEW OPTIONS

Unlock exclusive discounts with a Caixin group subscription — ideal for teams and organizations.

Subscribe to both Caixin Global and The Wall Street Journal — for the price of one.

Share this article

Open WeChat and scan the QR code

DIGEST HUB

Digest Hub

Back

Explore the story in 30 seconds

Tencent and ByteDance offer free OpenClaw AI assistant installations and tutorials to attract cloud services customers.
OpenClaw, open-sourced in January 2026 by Peter Steinberger, supports automation and integrates with major communication and AI platforms.
Tencent reports over 100,000 OpenClaw installations on its cloud, leveraging its complex setup to drive cloud adoption amid rising paid service demand.

AI generated, for reference only

Who’s Who

Tencent Holdings Ltd.: Tencent Holdings Ltd. (referred to as Tencent) is offering free installation services and tutorials for the open-source AI assistant OpenClaw to attract more cloud services customers. Tencent Cloud engineers provided five-minute installations at their Shenzhen headquarters, drawing nearly 1,000 attendees. Tencent noted over 100,000 users have installed OpenClaw on its cloud platform, leveraging the complex AI setup to drive cloud adoption.

ByteDance Ltd.: ByteDance Ltd. is actively promoting the OpenClaw AI assistant to attract more cloud service customers. Its cloud computing platform, Volcano Engine, and AI app development platform, Coze, have hosted livestreams and plan offline events to teach OpenClaw installation and usage. ByteDance's work collaboration app, Feishu, also increased API call limits and launched a beta plugin to integrate OpenClaw into its ecosystem.

Tencent Cloud: Tencent Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Tencent Holdings Ltd., is actively promoting the open-source AI assistant OpenClaw. They offer free, five-minute installation services for OpenClaw at their Shenzhen headquarters and online. This strategy aims to attract new customers to their cloud services, with over 100,000 users already installing OpenClaw on their platform.

Volcano Engine: Volcano Engine is ByteDance's cloud computing platform. It is actively participating in the OpenClaw frenzy by hosting livestreaming sessions to educate users on installing and utilizing the AI assistant. Volcano Engine also plans offline events in Chengdu and Shanghai to further promote OpenClaw.

Feishu: Feishu, ByteDance's work collaboration app, is actively promoting the integration of OpenClaw. It has increased its free API call limit from 10,000 to 1 million times monthly and introduced a beta plugin for the AI agent, encouraging users to incorporate OpenClaw into its ecosystem.

AI generated, for reference only

What Happened When

January 2026：: U.S. developer Peter Steinberger open-sourced OpenClaw.

Late February or early March 2026：: ByteDance's platforms Volcano Engine and Coze hosted livestream sessions on installing and using OpenClaw.

By March 2026：: The number of users installing OpenClaw on Tencent's cloud platform exceeded 100,000.

Friday, March 6, 2026：: Tencent Cloud engineers hosted a booth at their Shenzhen headquarters offering free OpenClaw installations, attracting nearly 1,000 developers and AI enthusiasts.

AI generated, for reference only