Chinese AI expansion accelerates worldwide adoption

April 03, 2026 (MLN): China is emerging as a global hub for artificial intelligence (AI), with its large AI models seeing growing adoption overseas.

In March 2026, the country’s average daily token usage exceeded 140 trillion, marking a more than 1,000-fold increase since early 2024, according to APP.

Tokens, the smallest units of text that AI models process are at the heart of this surge, reflecting AI’s rising role in boosting efficiency and solving complex tasks.

Chinese AI models are increasingly recognized for their intelligence, speed, and practical usefulness, as well as their ability to handle difficult problems at sustainable costs.

The MiniMax M2.5 model, for example, has been optimized to generate answers using fewer tokens while maintaining high value per token. With a throughput of 100 tokens per second, it can run for an hour at just $1, roughly one-tenth the cost of comparable U.S. models.

China’s advantages in electricity supply, green energy, and a complete AI supply chain from chips and servers to cross-border networks and international payments contribute to lower costs and stable computing power.

By December 2025, China had 602 million generative AI users, a 141.7% increase from the previous year, as AI expands beyond the internet into office collaboration, industrial design, and other complex fields.

Li Zhiqing, a professor at the School of Economics at Fudan University, noted that while traditional products generate limited value per kilowatt-hour of electricity, digital tokens can multiply that value dozens or even hundreds of times, turning China’s energy and manufacturing strengths into globally impactful digital value.

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