China's AI agent patents exceed 3,400, computing power hits 2.4 million PFLOPS

At the opening of the 2026 China International Big Data Industry Expo, Hu Jianbo, head of the National Data Development Research Institute, said AI agent applications are boosting token services. In 2025, China granted over 3,400 AI agent patents, double the previous year's growth rate, showing faster innovation.

By the end of June 2026, China's smart computing power reached 2.4 million PFLOPS, up 50.9% in half a year, with eight hub nodes holding nearly 90% of the national total. In 2025, China's data industry hit 6.78 trillion yuan, up 15.7% year-on-year, with software and data resource products contributing 4.99 trillion yuan, or 73.6%.

Tokens are now the unit for measuring and billing AI services. By March 2026, daily token calls exceeded 140 trillion, equivalent to processing 250 national library collections in one day. Daily calls grew from 100 billion in early 2024 to 140 trillion now, a thousand-fold increase in two years.