{"slug": "china-s-token-consumption-to-reach-100-quadrillion-in-2026-says-report", "title": "China's token consumption to reach 100 quadrillion in 2026, says report", "summary": "China's annual token consumption is expected to reach 100 quadrillion in 2026 and exceed 35 quintillion by 2030, according to the \"Research Report on AI Infrastructure Development in the Agent Era (2026)\" released by the China Telecom Research Institute on Saturday. Rao Shaoyang, director of the institute's industry and enterprise strategy institute, said that equates to roughly 274 trillion tokens consumed per day in 2026, or about 3.2 billion tokens per second, up from over 140 trillion per day as of March this year, with inference computing projected to account for 80% of China's computing market by 2029. China Mobile chief expert Qian Ling said the group has established two high-level management institutes for computing power and tokens, estimating its average daily token output at about 3.4 trillion tokens last year, while International Data Corporation expects active AI agents worldwide to grow from roughly 28.6 million in 2025 to 79.4 million in 2026 and 2.216 billion by 2030.", "body_md": "[Photo/VCG]\n\nChina's annual token consumption is expected to reach 100 quadrillion this year, as the country's AI industry shifts its focus from competition in large models and computing power to the large-scale deployment and commercialization of AI agents, according to a new report.\n\nAI is now entering a new stage of development in which AI agents are becoming a primary form of application, said a report titled \"Research Report on AI Infrastructure Development in the Agent Era (2026)\" released by the China Telecom Research Institute on Saturday.\n\nAI agents are making complex AI technologies invisible and accessible, which allows individuals and enterprises to complete sophisticated, end-to-end tasks without mastering specialized technical expertise, it said.\n\nRao Shaoyang, director of the industry and enterprise strategy institute at the China Telecom Research Institute, said China's annual token consumption is expected to reach 100 quadrillion in 2026 and exceed 35 quintillion by 2030 – a compound annual growth rate of nearly 12-fold.\n\nThat is to say, roughly 274 trillion tokens are expected to be consumed a day in 2026, or about 3.2 billion tokens consumed every second, compared to over 140 trillion per day as of March this year.\n\nThe surge of AI agents will drive sustained, rapid growth in China's demand for computing power, said Rao. China's computing power demand is expected to increase by nearly tenfold annually over the next two to three years. In terms of the structure of that demand, inference computing will far outpace training computing, and by 2029, inference computing is projected to account for 80% of China's computing market.\n\nChinese companies are already preparing for the surge in token consumption.\n\nQian Ling, a chief expert at China Mobile, said the group has established two high-level management institutes for computing power and tokens, to coordinate the development of computing infrastructure and token consumption.\n\n\"We estimated that the average daily token output of China Mobile was about 3.4 trillion tokens last year, and the production capacity will for sure surpass that level this year,\" said Qian.\n\nAccording to the global market research firm International Data Corporation, the number of active AI agents worldwide is expected to expand from roughly 28.6 million in 2025 to 79.4 million in 2026 and 2.216 billion by 2030.\n\nThe World Internet Conference (WIC) was established as an international organization on July 12, 2022, headquartered in Beijing, China. It was jointly initiated by Global System for Mobile Communication Association (GSMA), National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/Coordination Center of China (CNCERT), China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), Alibaba Group, Tencent, and Zhijiang Lab.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/china-s-token-consumption-to-reach-100-quadrillion-in-2026-says-report", "canonical_source": "https://www.wicinternet.org/2026-09/15/c_1213473.htm", "published_at": "2026-09-19 05:54:41+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-19 06:25:13.056099+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-agents", "ai-infrastructure", "ai-chips"], "entities": ["China Telecom Research Institute", "Rao Shaoyang", "China Mobile", "Qian Ling", "International Data Corporation", "World Internet Conference", "Alibaba Group", "Tencent"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/china-s-token-consumption-to-reach-100-quadrillion-in-2026-says-report", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/china-s-token-consumption-to-reach-100-quadrillion-in-2026-says-report.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/china-s-token-consumption-to-reach-100-quadrillion-in-2026-says-report.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/china-s-token-consumption-to-reach-100-quadrillion-in-2026-says-report.jsonld"}}