China Mobile Sets Up Token Office to Scale AI Services

China Mobile, the world’s largest telecom operator by subscriber base, has established a dedicated group-level Token Office to commercialize artificial intelligence tokens, signaling an accelerated pivot from traditional telecommunications toward AI-driven services. The move, confirmed by a company source to Caixin, represents the company’s third major AI-related organizational restructuring in six months.

Context

The Token Office is tasked with overseeing the full lifecycle of AI tokens — “creating tokens, delivering tokens, and applying tokens” — integrating functions previously scattered across multiple departments including the Computing Power Office, Mobile Cloud, Digital Intelligence Business Unit, Marketing, and Government-Enterprise divisions. The General Manager of the Strategic Development Department serves as the Executive Deputy Director, with the group’s core leadership providing direct oversight.

This restructuring follows the establishment of a Computing Power Office in February 2026 and the reorganization of the Digital Intelligence Business Unit, reflecting an accelerating organizational commitment to AI. As IT之家 reported, the Token Office is modeled in part on Alibaba’s earlier Alibaba Token Hub (ATH) business group, signaling an industry-wide shift toward token-based monetization.

Key Developments

China Mobile Chairman Chen Zhongyue articulated the strategic vision at MWC26 Shanghai on June 24, stating that “artificial intelligence is deeply shaping all aspects of human production and daily life, and telecom operators must restructure their service models and network architectures.” He described the company’s aim to “renew the connotation of ‘Mobile’ — extending from Mobile Communication to Mobile Computing and Mobile AI.”

A company source told Caixin that “the new Token Office marks a shift from pilot programs to group-level coordination and scaled commercialization.” The source elaborated that the office completes the operational闭环 (closed loop), with dedicated responsibility for token commercialization, product iteration, pricing control, channel implementation, and compliance services, forming a complete chain of “build computing power, research models, deliver services.”

China Mobile launched token (词元)套餐 nationwide in May 2026, with plans starting as low as 5 yuan per month for light users. The company also launched MoMA, a one-stop AI model platform on May 8, 2026, integrating its in-house Jiutian model with over 300 domestic AI models including ByteDance’s Doubao, Alibaba’s Qwen, and DeepSeek. Through December 31, 2026, the company is offering 25 million free tokens for 30 days to first-time computing service users.

Analysis

The establishment of the Token Office comes as China Mobile faces declining revenue from traditional services. According to the company’s 2025 annual results, communications services revenue fell 1.0% year-on-year to RMB 714.9 billion, while computing services revenue rose 11.1% to RMB 89.8 billion. AI computing service revenue surged an extraordinary 279% year-on-year, making it the company’s primary growth engine. As Edgen reported, this pivot from telecom to technology is reshaping the company’s financial profile.

China Mobile operates 92.5 EFLOPS of intelligent computing infrastructure, and computing networks now account for more than 30% of capital spending across China’s three state-owned telecom carriers. The company’s shares trade at approximately 10x forward earnings — a discount compared to global peers like AT&T and Verizon.

The industry context is significant. China Telecom launched its own AI Token Global Service Ecosystem Alliance and the XINGCHEN TokenHub platform on June 25, 2026, connecting over 300 mainstream large language models across 230 global cloud nodes. China Telecom Chairman Ke Ruiwen described the industry shift as moving “from traffic operations to token operations, from connectivity-driven growth to intelligence-driven growth.”

What’s Next

Industry estimates project China’s AI market will reach $80 billion by 2028, creating a substantial revenue pool that telecom operators cannot afford to ignore. However, the Bank for International Settlements, in its latest annual report, warned that if AI investment returns fall short of expectations, the current capital expenditure boom could lead to “significant macroeconomic disruption.”

Key questions remain: Will China Unicom follow with its own token office, completing the trifecta of state-owned carriers? Can enterprise AI inference demand grow fast enough to offset the structural decline in traditional telecom revenue? And how will token pricing evolve as competition intensifies between China Mobile and China Telecom? The answers will determine whether China’s telecom giants can successfully navigate the transition from connectivity providers to AI service operators.