Telecom carriers fuel artificial intelligence boom

China's leading telecom operators are injecting vitality into the nation's burgeoning artificial intelligence industry.

During the ongoing WAIC in Shanghai, these carriers announced a series of initiatives designed to provide vast computing power, investment, data and application scenarios, driving industrial upgrades and development across the AI ecosystem.

China Mobile officially launched its "Huanxin Community", at WAIC 2025, positioned as an open-source innovation platform for AI, serving the entire society.

This platform is designed to consolidate a diverse array of domestic AI computing power.

It will lead open-source foundational models, state-owned enterprise (SOE) specific industry models, high-quality datasets, rich intelligent agent applications and various AI development tools.

Its goal is to promote the maturity of independent AI technology and its industrial ecosystem through resource integration and application innovation.

Currently, the "Huanxin Community" offers resources covering computing power, data aggregation including 160 high-quality databases in five general categories (text, image, video, audio, multi-modal) and AI scenario promotion.

During WAIC 2025, China Unicom unveiled its Industrial Smart Computing Cloud and the Industrial Corpus Public Service Platform.

These newly launched platforms specifically address the development needs of process manufacturing industries in critical areas like computing power support and industrial corpus supply.

They provide systemic solutions, offering crucial support for building an innovative system that leverages AI to enable new industrialization.

These initiatives are already assisting sectors such as automotive, steel, electronics and equipment, where some smart factories have completed intelligent upgrades in design, R&D, production and management.

Shanghai, with its robust manufacturing base and rich application scenarios, offers huge space for AI industry innovation and upgrade.

Carriers including China Unicom play vital roles in the process, said the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

An AI investment alliance was formally established at the 2025 China Telecom AI Ecological Forum, a part of WAIC.

This alliance centers on investing in the AI sector, aiming to build an open and collaborative platform for investors, integrating industrial capital, developing application scenarios and fostering an open and collaborative industrial ecosystem.

Its ultimate goal is to inject new momentum into the high-quality development of China's AI industry.

China Telecom has also rapidly expanded its outreach, developing more than 80 large industry-specific models and more than 20 intelligent agent applications for sectors like industry, emergency management and education, serving over 20,000 industry clients.