A public spat has broken out among China’s leading artificial intelligence companies as they rush to fill the void left by US startup Anthropic’s decision to cut off access to its Claude models through OpenClaw, a popular open-source AI agent tool.
Key takeaways
- Anthropic’s decision to block Claude’s access to third-party tools like OpenClaw has handed Chinese rivals MiniMax and Xiaomi a ready-made recruitment opportunity.
- Shanghai-based MiniMax publicly accused Anthropic of stifling AI innovation by locking subscriptions to its own first-party products.
- The clash is unfolding amid a worsening global shortage of computational power, driven by surging demand for AI tokens from the rapid growth of AI agents.
Anthropic announced on Sunday that Claude subscriptions would no longer cover usage on third-party tools like OpenClaw, citing the need to prioritise existing customers of its own products.
The decision has sent ripples through the AI developer community and opened a window of opportunity that Chinese rivals have been quick to exploit.
Companies MiniMax and Xiaomi both moved swiftly, encouraging users to switch to their own token subscription plans in the wake of Anthropic’s announcement.
But the competition has not been without friction. Shanghai-based MiniMax took to X to publicly accuse Anthropic of damaging the broader AI community through its new restrictions, arguing that more good ideas of how to use AI come from outside AI labs than within them, and that limiting subscriptions to first-party products stifles innovation before it can take hold.
The commercial battle is unfolding against a broader and more troubling backdrop. The explosive growth of AI agents has triggered a dramatic surge in demand for AI tokens, the core unit by which AI usage is measured, raising serious questions about whether the industry can sustainably meet that demand amid a worsening global crunch in computational power.
Analysts are watching closely to see whether Anthropic’s move reflects a strategic retreat or a necessary triage, and whether Chinese companies can convert the moment into lasting market share, or whether the same resource constraints that pressured Anthropic will ultimately close in on them too.
