China sets Chinese name for “Token” as “词元”

Beijing names the unit and calls it a settlement anchor

China has moved to formalize the language of the AI economy. Liu Liehong (刘烈宏), director of the National Data Administration (国家数据局), said at the China Development Forum 2026 that Token should be translated and recognised domestically as “词元”. He framed 词元 not merely as a linguistic label but as “a value anchor and a settlement unit” that links technology supply with commercial demand — a pragmatic step toward making AI consumption measurable and billable.

Usage has exploded; the business model is shifting

Liu provided growth figures that illustrate why the label matters. China’s daily Token calls reportedly rose from about 1,000亿 (100 billion) at the start of 2024 to 100万亿 (100 trillion) by the end of 2025, and reached roughly 140万亿 (140 trillion) in March — a more than thousandfold increase in two years. He added that some model vendors have achieved, it has been reported, 20‑day revenue runs that exceed their entire 2025 annual revenue, underscoring a rapidly evolving, Token‑priced commercial logic. As the smallest machine‑readable unit of information, Tokens are now being treated as measurable, priceable and tradable economic inputs — and that is reshaping how AI services are packaged and sold.

Industry follows: optimism, perks and corporate moves

Outside Beijing, industry actors are already reacting. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang (黄仁勋) reportedly described computing as turning into revenue‑generating “factories” that output consumable Tokens, and predicted a stratification in Token value with some premium Tokens commanding high prices. It has been reported that inside companies such as Meta and OpenAI, internal Token consumption leaderboards and “Token budgets” have appeared — budgets treated like employee perks. Domestically, Alibaba (阿里巴巴) has formally launched an Alibaba Token Hub (ATH) business group focused on “creating, delivering and applying Tokens,” led by CEO Wu Yongming (吴泳铭); brokers interpret the move as a strategic shift from raw model capability toward Token‑based monetisation.

What this means in a geopolitically constrained market

Analysts say the Token economy will intensify demand for domestic compute, CDN capacity and rented AI chips. Open Source Securities (开源证券) has framed Token = domestic compute + rented compute = AIDC, flagging three core investment threads: AIDC, compute leasing and CDN. That matters because U.S. export controls and broader tech tensions have tightened Beijing’s push for self‑reliant infrastructure. Will Tokenisation become the primary way China monetises AI at scale — and will that model travel beyond its borders? For now, Beijing’s naming of 词元 signals both a linguistic and a policy nudge toward treating Token as the unit of value in China’s nascent AI economy.