Chinese AI Firms Spar Over Anthropic's OpenClaw Withdrawal During Global Token Shortage

A public dispute has erupted between Chinese AI companies following Anthropic's decision to remove its Claude models from the open-source platform OpenClaw. The U.S. startup announced on Sunday that Claude subscriptions would cease covering usage on third-party tools like OpenClaw, citing a need to prioritize its own product customers. Shanghai-based MiniMax and Xiaomi swiftly responded by promoting their alternative token subscription plans. MiniMax publicly criticized Anthropic on X, arguing that restricting subscriptions to first-party products stifles innovation from outside AI labs. This conflict unfolds against a backdrop of surging demand for AI tokens, driven by increased AI agent usage, which is straining global computational resources and raising concerns about long-term supply capacity. Chinese tech firms are aggressively positioning themselves to offer lower-cost alternatives to premium U.S. services from companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic.