"Lobster Subsidy" Intensive Rollout: Longgang, Hefei, Changshu, Wuxi... Up to 10 million!

The policy race around open-source AI agent OpenClaw is being simultaneously launched in multiple cities across the country. Shenzhen Longgang, Hefei High-tech Zone in Anhui, Changshu in Jiangsu, Wuxi, and others have successively issued special support policies, with subsidies and equity investments reaching up to 10 million yuan. Localities are competing to turn the entrepreneurial boom of “raising lobsters” into tangible advantages for local industry clusters.

From March 7 to 10, Shenzhen Longgang took the lead in releasing the “Ten Measures for AI Lobster,” followed quickly by Wuxi, Changshu, and others.

Hefei High-tech Zone even offers up to 10 million yuan in computing power vouchers for OpenClaw and other open-source AI projects, and provides up to 10 million yuan in startup funding for AI-OPC companies founded by high-level talents; Shenzhen Longgang promises up to 10 million yuan in equity investment support and offers three months of free computing resources to new resident companies; Wuxi released 12 measures for “raising lobsters,” with subsidies up to 5 million yuan.

The policy effects are immediate. According to Xinhuanghe, Zhao Bingbing, director of Shenzhen Longgang District AI Office, revealed that after the policy was announced, dozens of people answered consultation calls locally, but the influx of demand was still difficult to handle, with an estimated thousands of calls received. This year, the government work report first introduced the concept of “intelligent agents,” explicitly stating the goal to “cultivate new forms of intelligent economy,” providing top-level support for this policy wave.

Meanwhile, safety risks have also attracted regulatory attention. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently issued warnings, pointing out that some instances of OpenClaw pose high security risks under default or improper configurations, which could easily trigger cyberattacks and information leaks. National People’s Congress deputy and Chinese Academy of Engineering academician Gao Wen also reminded that platforms providing services like OpenClaw must assume primary responsibility and fulfill safety risk assessment obligations according to law.

Why Did OpenClaw Ignite the “Lobster Raising” Fever?

OpenClaw is an open-source AI agent software, affectionately called “lobster” by the industry due to its icon of a red lobster. The process of training and using this tool is called “raising lobsters.” Currently, the project has over 260,000 stars on GitHub.

Unlike AI tools like ChatGPT and DeepSeek, which mainly focus on dialogue interaction, OpenClaw, after gaining device access, can fully take over various software on the device, autonomously completing tasks such as organizing files and sending emails—equivalent to an independent “personal assistant.” This feature is fundamentally different from previous AI tools that only provided verbal suggestions.

This capability has sparked widespread imagination about its commercial potential. On March 7, during a group meeting of the Guangdong delegation at the National People’s Congress, Gao Wen, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and director of Pengcheng Laboratory, said that the popularity of “raising lobsters” is so high that “even Ma Huateng didn’t expect it.” Currently, installation services for OpenClaw have spontaneously formed a market, with on-site installation quotes ranging from 300 to 800 yuan, and remote installation costing about 50 to 100 yuan. Some netizens claimed to have earned 260,000 yuan in a few days by providing this service.

Overview of Policies in Four Places: Covering the Entire Chain from Computing Power to Capital

• Shenzhen Longgang: “Ten Measures for Lobster”

On March 7, Shenzhen Longgang released the “Measures to Support the Development of OpenClaw & OPC in Longgang District (Draft for Comments),” a series of initiatives known as the “Ten Measures for Lobster,” covering the entire chain from deployment support to capital exit.

The policy states that contributing key code or developing applications related to Longgang’s advantageous industries for the international mainstream community can receive up to 2 million yuan in subsidies; AIGC enterprises within the district that utilize large models are eligible for a 30% subsidy on model invocation costs, with an annual cap of 1 million yuan per enterprise; using district science and technology innovation “seed funds,” eligible OPC projects can receive up to 10 million yuan in equity investment. Additionally, newly registered or relocated OPC companies in Longgang can enjoy up to 2 months of free accommodation and up to 18 months of office space discounts.

• Hefei High-tech Zone: 15 Measures, Five Guarantees

On March 6, Hefei High-tech Zone issued the “Action Plan for Building a Demonstration Zone for AI OPC Entrepreneurship Ecosystem (Draft for Comments),” introducing 15 measures. Relying on Anhui’s leading AI industry zone and the scientific innovation foundation of USTC Silicon Valley, it aims to build a full-cycle support system of “space + talent + computing power + scenarios + capital.”

In terms of computing power and data, providing up to 10 million yuan in computing power vouchers, 1 million yuan in corpus vouchers, and 2 million yuan in model vouchers for projects like OpenClaw, covering all R&D processes from model training to agent building. For talent, settled talents can enjoy up to 300,000 yuan in employment subsidies, with up to 6 months of free talent station accommodation and an annual housing rental subsidy of up to 36,000 yuan. In terms of capital, the district’s AI special fund will allocate no less than 20% of its funds to high-growth OPC companies, and high-level talents founding AI-OPC enterprises can apply for up to 10 million yuan in startup funds, with an additional subsidy of up to 50% for loans.

• Changshu: 13 Measures, Focused on Characteristic Industries

Changshu recently released the “Several Measures to Accelerate the Construction of OpenClaw and Other Open Source Communities to Promote High-Quality Industry Development (Draft for Comments),” aiming to address the startup teams’ “difficulties in getting started.”

The policy offers full-process free deployment and skills training services, with significant platform organizations receiving subsidies up to 3 million yuan; open access to desensitized government public service data resources; pioneering security and compatibility certification services for agents to ensure safe and controllable technology application; and focuses on building OPC communities in characteristic fields such as embodied intelligence, textiles and apparel, live e-commerce, and cultural creativity, with support up to 2 million yuan for construction and operation.

• Wuxi: Releases “Raising Lobsters” 12 Measures, Subsidies Up to 5 Million

Wuxi High-tech Zone issued the “Measures to Support the Integration of OpenClaw and Other Open Source Community Projects with OPC Communities (Draft for Comments).” The 12 “raising lobsters” policies cover basic support to industry landing, talent cultivation, and safety compliance, with individual support up to 5 million yuan.

The draft proposes that local cloud platforms providing free deployment and development toolkits can receive full subsidies up to 1 million yuan. For OPC projects using local intelligent computing platforms, subsidies will be given based on actual costs, with a maximum of 300,000 yuan per year per company. Additionally, projects developing industrial quality inspection, predictive maintenance for equipment, and other vertical large models based on OpenClaw and registered nationally can receive a 500,000 yuan reward; breakthroughs in embodied intelligence robots, intelligent quality inspection, and other key technologies can be supported up to 5 million yuan; and establishing “AI + Manufacturing” joint open-source laboratories is encouraged, with top developers of open-source frameworks or industry standards eligible for up to 1 million yuan in rewards.

“Government Affairs Lobster” First Implemented, Demonstration Effect Begins

According to Southern Daily, Shenzhen Futian District has taken the lead in deploying OpenClaw in government scenarios. The “government affairs lobster” maintained by local civil servants acts as an analyst for public service demands, capable of automatically processing and classifying massive complaints and suggestions, generating demand analysis reports, identifying high-frequency issues, and proactively assessing potential risks, thus shifting government work from “firefighting after the fact” to “preventive before the event.”

Futian District also issued the “Interim Measures for the Management of Government Auxiliary Intelligent Robots,” stipulating that each “government affairs lobster” must be accompanied by a civil servant acting as a “guardian,” responsible for its output and decisions, ensuring AI-assisted decision-making remains controllable and compliant.

MIIT Warning: Security Vulnerabilities Cannot Be Ignored

The rapid market expansion has also raised safety concerns among regulators. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s cybersecurity threat and vulnerability information sharing platform recently detected that some instances of OpenClaw pose high security risks under default or improper configurations.

The MIIT pointed out that because OpenClaw deployment involves “blurred trust boundaries” and features autonomous continuous operation, system calls, and external resource invocation, without effective permission control and auditing mechanisms, it may execute overreach commands due to instructions, configuration flaws, or malicious takeover, leading to information leaks and system control issues. The MIIT recommends relevant units and users thoroughly check exposure to public networks and permission settings, disable unnecessary public access, and improve identity authentication, access control, data encryption, and security auditing mechanisms.

Gao Wen also stated during the NPC session that the emergence of tools like OpenClaw greatly lowers the threshold for entrepreneurship, but its open-source nature also leaves security responsibilities ambiguous. He called on internet platform companies providing such services to fulfill their legal obligations for security risk assessments and other responsibilities.

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