China Unicom pivots to AI-driven services

Showcasing a broader industrial shift with artificial intelligence as the core growth engine, China Unicom, a major Chinese telecom carrier, is stepping up its transformation toward a more comprehensive digital service provider by forging new computing network ecosystems, the company said.

Amid the pivotal transformation in the telecommunications sector driven by market demand, China Unicom will further prioritize technological innovation to empower the real economy, said Dong Xin, the company chairman, at the recent China Unicom Partner Conference in Shanghai.

Dong said China Unicom will enhance connections to include satellite and AI. He noted that the company will strengthen 6G research and build a next-generation network integrating space, air, ground and sea, while combining communication, sensing, intelligence and cybersecurity capabilities.

Describing the computing network as a "thinking" national digital base, Dong said China's total intelligent computing capacity has exceeded 2,100 exaflops.

The company chairman said China Unicom will ramp up investments during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30) and construct ultra-large and eco-friendly intelligent computing centers nationwide.

To drive commercial AI application, Dong highlighted a shift from raw model parameters to practical scenarios and delivery capabilities.

China Unicom is developing a drag-and-drop marketplace that integrates ready-to-use software components, blurring the lines between in-house and partner-developed solutions.

Recognizing the exponential growth in the usage of AI tokens — the fundamental units of data processed by large language models — the company is enhancing its entire token operation chain.

"We are moving from transporting data traffic to supplying tokens, and from transmitting bits to empowering intelligence," Dong said.

To improve delivery efficiency, the company will open its extensive service network of over 230,000 frontline employees and launch multi-billion-yuan support plans covering finance, hardware terminals, data traffic and computing power, he said.

Detailing the technical foundation supporting this grand vision, Hao Liqian, deputy general manager of China Unicom, introduced a newly upgraded intelligent computing cloud system during the conference. The system integrates computing, networks, chips and models to build a trusted infrastructure for the AI era.

Through the advanced computing dispatch platform, the company has deeply adapted to over 30 domestic chips and integrated more than 300 mainstream models, improving overall computing efficiency by 300 percent, Hao said. This allows computing power to be dispatched on demand nationwide with ultrafast response times.

Hao also announced the upgrade of the company's model-as-a-service (MaaS) platform — which provides AI models via cloud computing — into a comprehensive token operation platform. This was accompanied by the release of UniClaw, an AI agent designed for diverse scenarios such as daily office work and code development.

By upgrading to an "agent +token + AI cloud" business model, China Unicom is building a one-stop digital product supermarket featuring over 500 intelligent agents, 100 smart terminals and 150 security partners.

"We are committed to working with industry clients to cultivate high-value scenarios in sectors such as government, manufacturing and education, creating benchmark products like AI secretaries and time-series forecasting tools to accelerate the release of AI's industrial value," Hao added.

Providing a strong local backdrop for China Unicom's nationwide initiatives, Chen Jie, vice-mayor of Shanghai, highlighted the foundational role of robust urban infrastructure in this evolution.

Chen noted at the event that Shanghai is accelerating the large-scale deployment of 5G-Advanced (5G-A) and 10-gigabit optical networks.

"Shanghai has formed a unified dispatch system for computing networks, with the city's intelligent computing capacity exceeding 185,000 petaflops — a measure of computer processing speed — accounting for roughly 8.5 percent of the national total," Chen said.

He concluded that the city will deepen its "AI+" initiatives, advance local AI model development projects and systematically build next-generation communication infrastructures to foster new economic drivers.

Contact the writers at renqi@chinadaily.com.cn