Following the global popularity of the “three new major export products” — new energy vehicles, lithium batteries and photovoltaic products — China’s digital services export sector has welcomed an entirely new category this year: Tokens. Token-based computing power services have emerged as an emerging track for digital services trade.
A token is the smallest fundamental unit for data computation and output of large language models, serving as a vital metric to measure intelligent computing power consumption and verify service value. The so-called “token exports” refer to the standardized overseas supply of large model inference, intelligent computing power scheduling, quantifiable and traceable market-oriented token services to global users, underpinned by China’s mature and complete computing power infrastructure within a compliant regulatory framework. Unlike physical goods trade that relies on cross-border logistics, token exports realize full-chain digital circulation with lower trade barriers, blazing a new path for the globalization of China’s digital economy.
Institutional Innovation Takes the Lead
As a brand-new blue-chip track in digital trade, token exports have undergone pilot trials across multiple regions amid continuous improvement of supporting policy systems. Institutional innovation safeguards the bottom line of data security while invigorating cross-border digital services.
The Overseas Chinese Economic and Cultural Cooperation Pilot Zone in Shantou, Guangdong (hereinafter the Overseas Chinese Pilot Zone), was approved to launch the “inbound data processing” pilot in 2025, making it the second such national pilot area after Hainan and establishing a policy carrier for compliant token exports. To strictly control cross-border data risks, the pilot zone adopts physical isolation control over the full-cycle token invocation process: overseas users’ computing power demands for large models are routed to dedicated zones via compliant cross-border dedicated lines, with all inference and computation procedures completed domestically in a closed loop. Service volume is calculated by platforms based on token consumption; computing results are transmitted back to overseas terminals through international submarine cables, while raw data never leaves Chinese territory.
“Our token export business targets overseas markets such as Southeast Asia, mainly serving local enterprises as well as Chinese practitioners with AI inference computing power demands in the region,” introduced Tang Hanlin, Chairman of Guizhou Data Treasure Network Technology Co., Ltd. (Data Treasure). The company is jointly developing intelligent recommendation and real-time inference services for overseas independent stations, cross-border livestreaming and other commercial scenarios, whose clients are primarily small and medium-sized e-commerce firms, content creators and foreign trade exporters.
Tang Hanlin noted that under the “no outbound raw data” model, policy compliance requirements are not restraints but a competitive moat. Shantou boasts submarine cable resources with direct links to Southeast and East Asia, featuring low latency and low packet loss for incoming overseas computing requests. Once tasks enter the inbound data processing zone, all data computation proceeds in a closed loop, and calculation results are sent back to overseas users in real time via the same channels.
Driven by favorable pilot policies and explosive overseas demand for computing power, Shantou completed full closed-loop verification of token exports at the end of April this year. Daily token invocation volume stood at merely 100 million tokens back then, yet surged to 10 billion tokens per day in less than a month.
Beyond pilot zones, multiple local governments have rolled out supporting industrial policies. The General Office of Hainan Provincial People’s Government recently issued the Hainan Provincial 15th Five-Year Plan for High-Tech Industry Development. In the section covering integrated cross-border data and artificial intelligence industries, the document clearly proposes developing offshore data businesses and exploring new service models for token exports.
Top-level design also strongly backs the development of the “token economy”. In June 2026, the National Data Bureau released the Implementation Plan for Promoting High-Quality Industry Dataset Development. Article 18 of the document states: “Explore new transaction models including token trading, and build a quantifiable and priceable dataset value system based on tokens.”
Zhang Yao, Founder of the Data Exchange Network, told reporters from the Securities Daily that advancing token trading is a pivotal initiative for China to seize the initiative amid global AI industry competition. As global AI competition intensifies, tokens have become the core circulation carrier of the industry, and discourse power over token trading rules and pricing systems directly determines a country’s standing in the global AI track.
Traditional fragmented data packet transactions and project-based service models cannot support large-scale, standardized data factor markets. As a splittable, measurable, traceable and programmable value carrier, the core value of tokens lies in converting diverse data products and services into standardized market commodities for efficient circulation.
As the new business form expands rapidly, deficiencies in supporting systems have gradually surfaced. Chen Yuping, General Manager of Beijing Office at Yande International Consultants, found insufficient cross-border financial support widespread in the industry while coordinating enterprise services. “Token transactions feature small single amounts, high frequency and high concurrency. Financial institutions need to build compliant, efficient and cost-controllable cross-border capital channels and smooth capital repatriation mechanisms to shore up industrial financial support and fuel large-scale, regular development of the token export industry,” Chen commented.
Computing Power System Lays the Foundation
The explosive growth of token exports this year stems from sustained top-level policy empowerment and effective pilot implementations, as well as rigid overseas shortages of computing power driven by global AI industry expansion. Compared with overseas markets, China leverages complete digital infrastructure, a mature computing power industrial chain and the coordinated layout of the East-Data-West-Computing project to form unique global cost advantages across data center construction, green power supply and mass computing power production.
The rapid boom of the AI industry has pushed global computing power demand to exponential growth, and computing power has become a core indicator measuring a country’s comprehensive digital strength. To resolve barriers to inclusive and accessible computing power applications and enable on-demand, efficient universal access to computing resources like water and electricity, China has gradually built a nationwide integrated computing power network under the national East-Data-West-Computing strategic project.
Supported by the integrated national computing power network, standardized token production plants have accelerated construction. Recently, the No.1 Beijing Token Factory operated by Softstone Information Technology (Group) Co., Ltd. (Softstone) officially went into operation. The firm also globally released and open-sourced the Softstone Token Factory Performance Benchmark, creating a standardized, industrialized “token assembly line”. Project executives explained that the No.1 Beijing Token Factory focuses on verifying intelligent agent inference businesses, integrating advanced computing power scheduling technology and green energy management solutions. It adopts a cross-regional collaborative model: Beijing sets industrial standards while Zhangjiakou’s new energy computing power base guarantees stable, highly elastic token supply.
Unlike traditional single-site computing power computer rooms, new token production leverages the interconnection of the national computing power network to realize dynamic cross-regional allocation and coordinated production of computing resources — this constitutes the core competitiveness of token exports. Instead of simply exporting finished large model products overseas, China attracts global developers to conduct model R&D and inference computation relying on domestic integrated computing power networks, achieving full independent control over standards, production capacity and scheduling systems, thus firmly underpinning the supply of underlying computing power for global AI.
Dou Dejing, Chief Scientist of BDT Digital Intelligence, told the Securities Daily that overseas demand for Chinese AI has upgraded from “discrete tool products” to “systematic solutions”. Clients demand not a single algorithm, but complete capabilities to solve real business challenges — covering computing power infrastructure, industrial large models, data governance, security compliance, deployment and continuous operation.
Against a backdrop of surging overseas computing power demand, numerous overseas users choose to launch AI model training businesses in China or directly tap mature domestic computing power resources for token generation. Meanwhile, domestic computing power service providers are accelerating global layout, exporting mature computing power scheduling architectures, technical systems and standardized operation and maintenance models worldwide.
Global AI competition has moved past the superficial stage of merely comparing model parameters and entered an era of all-round rivalry centered on computing power supply and underlying infrastructure. Against this backdrop, China has pioneered an entirely new AI export paradigm, breaking away from the single model of physical product exports and focusing on full-scale output of core digital infrastructure. The vision of “running the world’s AI on China’s computing power” is no longer just an industry slogan but an industrial reality steadily advancing and landing nationwide.
New Power Infrastructure Fuels Development
China’s leading global position in token exports stems from both technological innovation and concentrated advantages in new infrastructure construction. With intensive development of data centers and intelligent computing hubs driving sharp rises in regional power load, power grid enterprises carry out distribution network upgrading while launching exclusive power supply services tailored to the computing power industry to accelerate its growth.
Cost advantages of green power further amplify the competitiveness of domestic token exports. A case released by China Southern Power Grid in March this year shows that in new energy-rich regions such as Guizhou and Yunnan, on-grid tariffs for wind and solar power stand at around 0.3 RMB per kWh via power market transactions. Calculated based on mainstream large model high-intensity inference tasks, generating one million tokens consumes approximately 15 to 20 kWh of electricity, translating to single-digit RMB power costs. On the revenue side, international market pricing for tokens of equivalent quality ranges from USD 60 to 168 per million tokens. After deducting equipment depreciation, bandwidth, R&D and other costs, export profit margins remain remarkably high.
Many overseas countries suffer from tight power supply and underdeveloped computing power infrastructure, incapable of supporting large-scale AI iteration and heavily reliant on external computing power procurement — opening vast market space for China’s token exports. China boasts ample, stable power supply with annual growth in installed green power capacity, promising sustained expansion of long-term cost advantages.
Professor Wang Yiwei from the School of International Relations, Renmin University of China, remarked that the fundamental strength behind token exports lies not in isolated technological breakthroughs but systematic advantages across the full infrastructure ecosystem. Independently controllable supply and industrial chains, coupled with deep integration of power, computing power and networks, embody China’s competitive edge in the AI era.
On the surface, token exports represent cross-border circulation of computing power services; at their core, they signify external output of China’s complete computing power infrastructure capabilities. As global AI competition shifts focus from “who builds larger models” to “who delivers more stable supply”, China exports not only computing power service products but also industrial standards, rule frameworks and holistic computing power infrastructure solutions. Tokens have become the “digital crude oil” of the intelligent age. Backed by sound hardware and software support, institutional systems and new infrastructure, China is steadily evolving into a core global supplier of foundational artificial intelligence industry infrastructure. (Outlook New Era)
Edit：Liu Zhiyu Responsible editor：Li Yulu
Source：http://www.zqrb.cn/
Special statement: if the pictures and texts reproduced or quoted on this site infringe your legitimate rights and interests, please contact this site, and this site will correct and delete them in time. For copyright issues and website cooperation, please contact through outlook new era email：lwxsd@liaowanghn.com
Economy
Recommended Reading Change it 
Home
