China's AI computing power surges as weekly token usage tops 12 trillion; Alibaba, Xiaomi lead global ranks

In the global AI race, China's large models are advancing at an impressive "Chinese speed," driven by exceptional performance and ecosystem advantages.

Latest data from OpenRouter shows that during the week of March 30 to April 5, China's AI large models demonstrated remarkable activity: weekly token usage jumped to 12.96 trillion tokens, a staggering 31.48% increase from the prior week. In comparison, the US saw only 3.03 trillion tokens in the same period, with a mere 0.76% growth. The gap in application scale between the two continues to widen.

Top Six Rankings All Held by China, Led by Alibaba and Xiaomi

In global large model usage rankings, domestic models achieved a clean sweep, occupying the top six positions:

Alibaba's Qwen3.6Plus leads the way: Alibaba's Qwen3.6Plus (free) topped the global ranking with 4.6 trillion weekly tokens; its preview version Qwen3.6Plus Preview also secured third place.

Xiaomi MiMo performs steadily: Xiaomi Group's MiMo-V2-Pro firmly holds second place.

First-tier models surge ahead: Domestic models like Step3.5Flash by Jieyu Star, M2.7 by MiniMax, and V3.2 by DeepSeek follow closely, together forming the top tier of global AI models.

Explainer: Why Tokens Are the "Digital Oil" of the AI World

In AI, a Token is the smallest billing unit for measuring a model's reasoning and generation capabilities.

Analogy: One Chinese character equals roughly 0.7 to 1.3 tokens. A 1,000-character article would use about 1,300 tokens.

Commercial significance: As usage surges, AI production capacity is being commercialized, quantified, and traded much like oil.

Industry Insight: High Cost-Effectiveness Creates Pricing Barriers

Zhongtai Securities analysis indicates that domestic AI large models are building a highly competitive "high cost-effectiveness token" pricing barrier by leveraging dual advantages in energy and computing power costs. As demand for AI agents and multimodal applications rises, companies with independent large model capabilities and extensive application scenarios will see significant investment opportunities.

Investment Trends: Capitalizing on Scale and Low Cost

For investors, domestic large model giants listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange have performed especially well.

Ecosystem moat: Alibaba, Xiaomi Group, Tencent Holdings, and Baidu Group not only have massive user moats and application entry points but also hold leading advantages in technology and ecosystem integration.

Computing power independence: Pingtouge under Alibaba and Kunlun X under Baidu provide independent semiconductor support, giving them stronger resilience in a computing power-constrained market environment.

Conclusion: From "Following" to "Leading"

Surpassing US usage data for five consecutive weeks proves that China's AI has made a qualitative leap from technological validation to large-scale industrial application. In this token feast, Chinese power has become a key factor in shaping the global AI business order.