China’s AI industry is moving from models to agents, a state report says
A China Telecom report says inference will be 80% of the country's compute market by 2029. Europe's gigafactories are due online in mid-2028.
China’s AI industry is moving from competing on models to deploying agents, and the China Telecom Research Institute expects inference to reach 80% of the country’s compute market by 2029. Europe’s answer is seven gigafactories whose bids close in November and whose machines are due to run by mid-2028, on a EUR 30bn budget of which around EUR 1bn is secured.
China’s AI industry is shifting from competing on large models and raw computing power towards deploying and selling AI agents, a report says. It expects agents to drive close to tenfold annual growth in the country’s computing demand over the next two to three years.
The report comes from the China Telecom Research Institute, the research arm of the state-owned carrier, and was carried by the state broadcaster CCTV on Saturday.
Its sharpest figure is a split. Inference will account for 80% of China’s computing-power market by 2029, overtaking demand from training.
Training builds a model once. Inference is what it costs every time somebody uses one, which makes it an operating expense rather than a capital one.
Chinese technology companies are expected to spend close to 600 billion yuan, about $89B, on AI this year. The report puts that at more than a tenth of all investment in the country.
Europe is building for the same demand on a different clock.
The Commission opened bidding in July for up to seven gigafactories, a EUR 30B programme with about EUR 10B of public money and EUR 20B hoped for from private investors.
Roughly EUR 1B of it is actually committed. Chinese technology companies are on course to spend that much on AI about every five days this year.
Applications close on 12 November, awards are expected in early 2027, construction starts that year, and the machines are due to run by mid-2028.
On paper that arrives a year before China’s crossover. It assumes nothing else slips.
Things have slipped. Bidding moved from May to July, the evaluation criteria were delayed more than once, and interest fell from about 70 interested companies to roughly ten expected bidders.
The money is the larger question. Most of the public half depends on a budget for 2028 to 2035 that member states have not agreed.
Meanwhile the economics have moved. Inference is where the margin sits, and the companies capturing it are optimising models rather than building them. China’s report is a forecast about running models, and Europe is still deciding where to put the buildings.
Originally published by thenextweb.com. Syndicated material does not necessarily reflect the views of Glamour Canada.
