China Telecom research arm forecasts inference at 80% of China compute market by 2029

A report from the China Telecom Research Institute, carried by state broadcaster CCTV, says China's AI industry is shifting from competing on large models toward deploying and selling AI agents. The state-owned carrier's research arm expects agents to drive close to tenfold annual growth in the country's computing demand over the next two to three years, and forecasts inference will reach 80% of China's computing-power market by 2029, overtaking training demand. The report also says Chinese technology companies are expected to spend close to 600 billion yuan on AI this year.