China's Telecom Giants Bet on 'Token Factories' as AI Drives Revenue Growth

China's major state-owned telecommunications companies—China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom—are adapting their growth approaches to focus on artificial intelligence, particularly through the introduction of billable AI tokens. In their financial disclosures for the first half of the year, all three companies highlighted AI and computing as significant factors for growth. China Telecom noted a remarkable 95% surge in revenue from intelligent computing, which helped boost its 'intelligent business' revenue by 7.1% to 31.1 billion yuan (US$4.6 billion). Meanwhile, China Unicom achieved a 13% rise in computing-power revenue, totaling 41.9 billion yuan, and introduced a 'token supermarket' for AI tokens. As the largest, China Mobile also recognized AI as a key growth factor, indicating a broader trend among telecoms to leverage the increasing demand for AI in China.