China's artificial intelligence industry is shifting its focus from competing in large language models and computing power to the large-scale deployment and commercialization of AI agents, with token consumption expected to reach 100 quadrillion this year, a report from the China Telecom Research Institute showed.
China's annual token consumption is estimated to achieve 100 quadrillion in 2026 and will surpass 35 quintillion by 2030, representing a compound annual growth rate of nearly 12-fold, said Rao Shaoyang, director of the industry and enterprise strategy institute at the China Telecom Research Institute.
The report, titled "Research Report on AI Infrastructure Development in the Agent Era (2026)", unveiled that in the new era of AI development where AI agents act as the primary form of application, AI agents enable complex AI technology to be invisible and accessible, allowing individuals and companies to handle sophisticated tasks without mastering specialized technologies.
The report also expects demand for inference computing to account for 80 percent of China's computing power market, far overtaking training computing.
Riding on the wave of surging computing demand, AI investment by Chinese technology companies is projected to top nearly 600 billion yuan (HK$701.51 billion) this year - more than a tenth of total investment in the country, the report said.
