China is witnessing a significant acceleration in innovation within the artificial intelligence (AI) and data service sectors. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 2026 China International Big Data Industry Expo on August 28th, Hu Jianbo, Dean of the National Data Development Research Institute, highlighted the rapid growth driven by AI agent applications.
Explosive Growth in AI Agent Patents
According to Hu Jianbo, China is projected to grant over 3,400 AI agent patents in 2025. This figure represents more than double the number granted the previous year, indicating a dramatic increase in the pace of innovation. This surge underscores the growing focus and investment in developing and patenting AI agent technologies across the country.
Vast Expansion of Computing Power
The expo also provided insights into the country’s expanding intelligent computing capabilities. As of the end of June 2026, China’s intelligent computing power reached an impressive 2.4 million PFLOPS, marking a substantial 50.9% increase within just six months. The eight major intelligent computing hub nodes are contributing nearly 90% of the national total, demonstrating a concentrated effort to build powerful AI infrastructure.
Data Industry’s Economic Prowess
The economic impact of China’s data industry is equally striking. In 2025, the industry’s scale reached 6.78 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.7%. A significant portion of this growth comes from data-related software products, including AI application software, and data resource products that incorporate token services. Together, these segments generated an output value of 4.99 trillion yuan, accounting for a dominant 73.6% of the total data industry scale.
Tokens Emerge as Key AI Metric
The report also shed light on the increasing importance of tokens as a fundamental unit for AI services. Tokens are rapidly becoming the standard for measuring, settling, and statistics within the AI service landscape. Data reveals that by March 2026, the national daily average token call volume had surpassed 140 trillion. To put this into perspective, this volume is equivalent to the entire collection of the China National Library being called, processed, and generated within a single day – multiplied by 250.
The growth in daily token calls has been nothing short of phenomenal. From just 100 billion calls at the beginning of 2024, the volume surged to 100 trillion by the end of 2025, and further to the current 140 trillion. This represents an increase of over a thousandfold in just two years, signifying an exponential rise in the usage and processing power required for AI services.
Future Outlook
The advancements in AI agent patents, intelligent computing power, and the sheer scale of data service utilization point towards a future where AI plays an even more integrated role in China’s economy and technological landscape. The rapid development and adoption of these technologies position China at the forefront of the global AI revolution.
