Token demand in China is exploding, and the country's AI industry has quietly changed the subject. A new report from the China Telecom Research Institute says the center of gravity has shifted away from large models and compute arms races toward the messier business of deploying agents at scale and turning them into revenue.
The report, AI Infrastructure Development in the Agent Era Research Report (2026), argues that AI is entering a new phase built around agents — software that hides the complexity of the underlying technology and makes it usable by everyone. Neither consumers nor companies need technical expertise; an agent can carry a complex task all the way through.
Rao Shaoyang, director of the Industry and Enterprise Strategy Research Institute at the China Telecom Research Institute, expects China's annual token consumption to reach 10亿亿 (100 quadrillion) in 2026 and climb past 3500亿亿 (35 quintillion) by 2030, a compound annual growth rate of nearly 12x. (Jinshi)