Hangzhou has set up a 1-billion-yuan fund to invest in a unicorn company worth $1 billion.

Recently, a "red lobster" overseas has become a sensation.

A company named Clawdbot has become a top - tier presence in the tech circle. It is not only an AI chatbot but also an open - source AI agent framework that can be self - deployed. It can fully take over your computer, help you send emails, write code, create notes, and even integrate communication applications, and has unlimited memory.

More crucially, its development team consists of only one person.

At the beginning of 2024, Sam Altman said in an interview that the future iteration of AI technology would give rise to "one - person companies worth $1 billion." At that time, this was regarded as a distant prophecy, but just two years later, it seems that this prediction is about to come true. The birth of Clawdbot has opened up the imagination for one - person companies. Perhaps we are no longer far from a one - person company worth $1 billion.

In China, one - person companies are no longer just stories of a few geeks. They have even been written into the policy plans of local governments. Last week, the High - tech Zone of Chengdu launched the "High - tech π Cubed OPC Community." The so - called "OPC" is the English abbreviation for One Person Company.

Moreover, Shangcheng District of Hangzhou announced that under the framework of a 10 - billion - level artificial intelligence industrial mother fund, it will specifically allocate a 1 - billion - yuan OPC sub - fund to support one - person companies that can "operate single - handedly."

It's not just Chengdu and Hangzhou. We can see that cities like Beijing, Shenzhen, Suzhou, and Wuxi have specifically introduced policies or planned to set up funds to support relevant startups.

To some extent, supporting the development of one - person companies is one of the paths for China to catch up with and lead in AI. It represents the realization of the value of individual creativity in the AI era and also the improvement of the innovation ability of the entire society. As the saying goes, 'With 1.4 billion people making crazy attempts, innovation will surely happen rapidly.'

01. Multiple Regions Issue Policies to Support the Development of One - Person Companies

The popularity of Clawdbot has put developer Peter Steinberger in the spotlight.

This Austrian programmer is not only a top - notch technical expert but also a successful entrepreneur. He is the founder of PSPDFKit and has been deeply involved in iOS development for more than two decades. The PDF framework he developed has been embedded in hundreds of millions of devices around the world. Chances are, whenever you see PDF rendering, it's likely done with his framework.

In 2022, he sold the software company he had run for 13 years and made a fortune of 100 million euros. After becoming a billionaire, he lived a "plain and simple" laid - back life.

However, Peter, who "has never been in it for the money but only wants to create things that amaze others," got back into action after three years of relaxation. Since last year, he has been obsessed with AI and tried to manage his daily life by programming AI agents. After two months of tinkering, he single - handedly developed the popular Clawdbot (later renamed Moltbot).

He wrote in the Clawdbot documentation: "Clawdbot is a private AI assistant that can run on personal devices. If you want a localized, fast, and always - online personal assistant, it's the perfect choice." In other words, Clawdbot is a private AI system that "resides" in personal computers.

We won't go into more praise for this product. Instead, the story of one person creating a top - notch product is what we're focusing on right now.

The concept of one - person companies originated from the UK Company Law in 2013, originally referring to "one - person limited liability companies" in the legal sense. In the wave of artificial intelligence, it has been redefined and evolved into a new type of entrepreneurial model where an individual or a very small team can achieve a full - link closed - loop from idea to operation with the help of AI tools.

Saying it's just a simple extension of freelancing may not be comprehensive enough. To be precise, the development of AI technology has changed the organizational form of traditional enterprises. As Peter said, with today's AI tools, he could run the company he founded before with only 30% of the previous staff.

Therefore, this is an entrepreneurial model based on technological progress that brings about extreme efficiency improvements. Different from the past entrepreneurial methods that relied heavily on labor and resources, now all it takes is one person, one computer, and even just an idea, and with the help of AI, a fully - functional company can be established.

Since the second half of 2025, several forward - looking cities in China have keenly captured the entrepreneurial opportunities of one - person companies and started to intensively introduce relevant support policies. Moreover, instead of just providing one - way subsidies, they have begun to upgrade to building a support system covering the entire life cycle.

Last August, the top - level policy regarding one - person companies was introduced.

The "Opinions on Deeply Implementing the Artificial Intelligence + Initiative" issued by the State Council clearly stated that it is necessary to "explore new organizational structures and management models of human - machine collaboration and cultivate and develop innovative work forms such as intelligent agents," which set the policy tone for the development of OPC.

Subsequently, relevant support policies emerged everywhere.

In August, Shanghai Lingang Group launched the "Super Individual 288 Initiative," providing support with "zero rent for both entrepreneurship and accommodation." It focuses on eight emerging industries such as hardcore technology, data processing, and cross - border live - streaming, and is accompanied by special support policies covering eight aspects including financing, household registration, and going global.

In November, Suzhou held the Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Development Conference and the First Artificial Intelligence OPC Conference, clearly proposing to accelerate the construction of an OPC innovation ecosystem. As the first advocate, Suzhou quickly announced its plan to build itself into the "Preferred City for OPC Entrepreneurship." Its policies range from planning a one - million - square - meter benchmark community and providing one - stop services to setting up a public computing power platform and issuing computing power vouchers and corpus vouchers, systematically building a support ecosystem covering the entire entrepreneurial cycle. Cities in the province such as Nanjing, Wuxi, and Nantong quickly followed suit, either building innovation centers for empowerment or transforming city libraries into communities.

In the same month, the AI North Latitude Community in Beijing's Zhongguancun released the city's first artificial intelligence OPC service plan, providing comprehensive support from move - in - ready offices and rent exemptions to flexible computing power and an Agent supermarket.

In 2026, the special policies spread to more cities.

Shangcheng District of Hangzhou released the "Several Measures on Building a High - ground for Artificial Intelligence OPC Entrepreneurship (Draft for Comment)"; the Shenzhen Industry and Information Technology Bureau released the "Action Plan for Shenzhen to Build a Leading Area for the Artificial Intelligence OPC Entrepreneurship Ecosystem (2026 - 2027)"; the High - tech Zone of Chengdu launched the "High - tech π Cubed OPC Community" plan, etc.

These policies or plans have all, without exception, regarded the construction of "OPC communities" as the physical cornerstone and provided innovative ecological nodes such as flexible computing power, open data, financing docking, legal and financial services, and living facilities.

02. Hangzhou and Suzhou Invest: Is a $1 - Billion Company on the Way?

Capital has also started to follow up quickly.

For example, Shangcheng District of Hangzhou has specifically allocated a 1 - billion - yuan OPC sub - fund under the 10 - billion - level artificial intelligence industrial mother fund, with an initial scale of 100 million yuan;

Suzhou Industrial Park plans to set up a 1 - billion - yuan "Youth Innovation Fund Group" and has also set up a special project for leading OPC talents, with a maximum support of 50 million yuan;

Wuxi plans to cooperate with Xichuang Investment and the university alumni foundation to explore the establishment of an "OPC Innovation Fund" focusing on future revenue rights and intellectual property financing.

Of course, in addition to seed investment, the model of financial support is also innovating. Banks in cities like Lianyungang have launched exclusive startup loans for OPCs, and Wuxi is exploring lightweight financing products based on future revenue rights.

Obviously, local governments and universities are using seed funds and supporting measures to try to capture these early innovation sparks. So, can this be achieved? Can they even invest in a "one - person company worth $1 billion" as Sam Altman mentioned?

We can see that in the domestic market, the OPC model has already sprouted in multiple fields.

In Beijing, Hong Yue, the founder of Yueyang Technology, uses AI as her "second brain" and completed research, engineering implementation, etc. with the help of AI. She independently developed an MVP product (Minimum Viable Product) within half a year, quickly validating her entrepreneurial idea. Li Yunfan, a post - 95s entrepreneur, independently operates an AI - powered composition correction tool called "Composition Talk," which has exceeded 10,000 users within a few months.

He Shanshan, the founder of Jiangsu Wutong AI, independently operates a college student employment service platform with 90,000 daily visits; Kaivn, a doctoral student focusing on AI + biomedicine, commands three AI agents to conduct front - end development, algorithm research, and engineering implementation respectively, and has built an automated R & D system of "dry - wet collaboration"...

According to a survey of thousands of questionnaires by the Honghu Club of the OPC Community, the AI - driven OPC has become a replicable new business form. The survey results also show that post - 95s entrepreneurs with a technical background are the absolute main force, and they regard AI as a daily tool. More than a quarter of entrepreneurial projects are concentrated in the AIGC content track.

Although these entrepreneurial projects and young entrepreneurs can't yet match Clawdbot, they already have the prototype of entrepreneurial companies.

From a macro perspective, supporting the development of one - person companies is one of the paths for China to catch up with and lead in AI. Dr. Alexander Wissner - Gross, a US computer scientist and the founder of Reified, analyzed when commenting on China's AI industry that "China makes everything in AI open - source and then relies on 1.4 billion people to make crazy attempts, and innovation will surely happen rapidly."

Therefore, when cities provide necessary capital and social support for one - person companies, they are actually promoting the popularization of AI and aiming to improve the innovation ability of the entire society. This is the logic of mass innovation in the AI era.

From this perspective, the success of a single one - person company is of course an important value, but the more important significance is to stimulate the entrepreneurial enthusiasm of more people and give full play to the multiplier effect of 1.4 billion people.

References:

1. Honghub Honghu Club, "First - hand Research on One - Person Companies: Honghub Releases 6 Insights and 1 System"

2. CSDN, "After 3 Years in Hiding, the AI He Wrote on the Weekend Went Viral Overnight and Gained 100,000 Stars in a Week, Faster than Linux. The Father of Clawdbot Has His First Long - Chat: Now He Barely Looks at the Code He Published"

This article is from the WeChat official account "Beyond the J Curve," written by Liu Huixian and published by 36Kr with permission.