en.Wedoany.com Reported - Since the beginning of this year, driven by the sustained growth in demand for overseas AI applications, China's "token export" business has rapidly heated up. Token export relies on domestic intelligent computing centers to provide large model inference computing power to overseas users via application programming interfaces. After an overseas user initiates a request, it enters the pilot zone through a compliant link, completes intelligent computing and token consumption in a domestic data center, and then transmits the results back to the overseas terminal.

This business is transforming China's intelligent computing centers into new digital trade export carriers. In the past, foreign trade growth relied more on physical goods, cross-border e-commerce, software services, and cloud service delivery; token export, however, breaks down the large model inference process into measurable, billable, and continuously callable digital services. Overseas users do not directly purchase servers, chips, or data center resources; instead, they consume tokens based on API calls, effectively purchasing a comprehensive service formed by China's computing power, model services, network transmission, and platform operation capabilities. As overseas enterprises, developers, and content platforms accelerate their integration of AI tools, token demand has shifted from single tests to high-frequency calls, giving China's computing power services a clearer export model.

Shantou, Guangdong, is a representative region in this wave of token exports. Leveraging the "data processing" policy pilot, the area connects cross-border data requests, intelligent computing center operations, submarine cable transmission, and compliance service links. Since the end of April this year, when the full-process test was implemented, the scale of cross-border token calls in Shantou has risen rapidly, with some enterprises now exporting over 10 billion tokens daily. This figure indicates that token exports are no longer in the proof-of-concept stage but have entered a phase of real orders and continuous consumption.

Behind the surge in China's token exports is a new supply-demand relationship formed between domestic intelligent computing infrastructure construction and overseas AI demand. Many regions in China have already built intelligent computing centers, computing power clusters, and large model service platforms, with some areas seeking more stable commercial export channels; meanwhile, overseas markets face issues such as rapid AI application growth, high inference costs, and local computing power shortages. As cross-border call links, data compliance rules, and billing systems gradually become operational, Chinese enterprises can convert idle or new inference computing power into digital service capabilities for global customers. For local governments and industrial parks, this also means that data centers are not just local digital supporting facilities but could become new infrastructure for foreign trade growth and service exports.

Opportunities in the industrial chain will spread to multiple links. Token exports require the joint support of AI servers, GPU computing clusters, storage systems, network switching equipment, cross-border dedicated lines, submarine cable access, data security systems, model deployment platforms, API management platforms, metering and billing systems, and cross-border settlement services. The more frequently overseas customers call, the higher the requirements for low-latency transmission, stable inference, concurrent processing, data isolation, and service availability. In the future, scenarios such as customer service generation, content creation, educational tools, AI hardware, enterprise office work, cross-border e-commerce, and multilingual marketing could become major sources of demand for China's token exports.

This also provides a new way for Chinese foreign trade enterprises to go global. In the past, many enterprises going global relied on equipment, components, consumer electronics, or software subscriptions; now, some enterprises can provide services centered on model capabilities, industry knowledge bases, computing power scheduling, and overseas application interfaces, turning "invisible tokens" into continuously billable digital goods. For small and medium-sized AI application enterprises, token exports lower the barrier to cross-border delivery. As long as they complete model deployment, interface services, and customer operations within a compliant framework, they have the opportunity to participate in the global AI service division of labor.

Subsequent focus points are concentrated in three areas: whether more regions can replicate the Shantou model, whether cross-border data compliance links can be continuously and stably expanded, and whether China's intelligent computing centers can maintain competitiveness in cost, response speed, and model service quality. If the scale of calls continues to grow, token exports could become a new high-frequency business in China's digital trade, driving intelligent computing centers, communication networks, data security, and AI application services to form a more complete export ecosystem. For the information and communication industry, the surge in China's token exports is not only a result of growing AI application demand but also marks the transformation of domestic computing power resources from infrastructure investment into service-oriented export capabilities for the global market.

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