Computing power surges as the main investment theme for the three major operators, with the highest share exceeding 35%

Ask AI · How the AI large-model boom is prompting telecom operators to bet big on computing power?

On March 26, China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom—the three major telecom operators—each completed the disclosure of their 2025 annual performance reports. However, what is more striking than the revenue figures is the shift in the investment logic behind them. All three operators, in unison, have established “computing power” as the absolute core of capital expenditures. From the absolute value of investment amounts to the proportion of total capital spending, computing power has indisputably replaced traditional network construction and become the first investment mainline driving development in the industry.

In terms of revenue, the three major operators have turned in a solid performance for 2025. China Mobile’s operating revenue surpassed the trillion-yuan mark, reaching 1.05 trillion yuan, continuing to lead; China Telecom’s operating revenue was 529.6 billion yuan, and China Unicom’s operating revenue was 392.2 billion yuan.

In terms of investment scale, China Mobile, backed by strong financial resources, continues to serve as the “front-runner.” China Mobile said that capital expenditures for its communications network will decline somewhat, while capital expenditures for computing power networks and intelligent networks will rise significantly. In 2026, China Mobile’s planned capital expenditure is 136.6 billion yuan, down 9.5% year over year. Of this, investment in computing power networks is 37.8 billion yuan, up 62.4%, accounting for about 28% of the planned capital expenditure. Investment in intelligent networks is 8.9 billion yuan, up 19.8%.

The proportion of investment devoted to computing power is also very high for China Telecom and China Unicom. China Telecom’s 2025 capital expenditures were 80.4 billion yuan; although the total is not as large as Mobile’s, its investment in computing power infrastructure was 20.2 billion yuan, accounting for about 25%. China Unicom’s full-year capital expenditures were 54.2 billion yuan, and the ratio of capital expenditures to operating revenue fell to 16%. While it did not disclose specific capital expenditures related to computing power, its financial report explicitly stated that in 2026 the expected capital expenditure would be around 50 billion yuan, with the share of computing power investment exceeding 35%.

As of now, China Mobile’s intelligent computing (built and leased) total scale is 92.5 EFLOPS (FP16), achieving full-spectrum computing capability from 100-card systems to beyond ten-thousand-card systems. China Telecom’s total scale of self-built and connected intelligent computing is 91 EFLOPS, and China Unicom’s intelligent computing scale is 45 EFLOPS.

Faced with demand from the AI large-model boom, simply having network connectivity is no longer enough to meet market needs. Behind this series of data is a fundamental reconfiguration of telecom operators’ underlying logic. In the past, telecom operators were “carriers” of information, mainly investing in pipelines and connectivity; today, they are shifting to become providers of the “computing power foundation” for the intelligent era.

(This article comes from Yicai Finance)