--- title: "Telecom Operators Unwilling to Remain Mere Pipelines: China Mobile’s Ambitions and Boundaries with AI-eSIM" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/285361727.md" description: "Business model restructuring" datetime: "2026-05-06T11:03:29.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/285361727.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/285361727.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/285361727.md) --- # Telecom Operators Unwilling to Remain Mere Pipelines: China Mobile’s Ambitions and Boundaries with AI-eSIM Author | Huang Yu Under the AI industrial revolution, telecom operators are destined to undergo an epochal shift in identity. Recently, China Mobile announced the launch of the world’s first AI-eSIM product. Traditional SIM cards and eSIMs are essentially communication tools, limited to providing connectivity. In contrast, the defining feature of AI-eSIM is that it equips edge-side chips with four core capabilities: an intelligent brain, a security foundation, computing power services, and communication connectivity. For decades, operators have played the role of “road builders,” responsible for delivering data traffic from base stations to mobile phones. However, in the AI era, China Mobile clearly does not want to remain merely a pipeline collecting tolls. Through AI-eSIM, it is attempting to become the “computing power grid” and “cloud-based brain” for smart hardware. The logic behind this is clear: since edge-side computing power cannot keep up with the demands of large models, operators might as well deliver cloud computing power and network connectivity directly to devices. ## **Operators’ Computing Power Business** In many people’s perception, eSIM simply integrates traditional SIM cards into chips. However, China Mobile’s strategic move in launching AI-eSIM runs much deeper. Jiang Han, a senior researcher at Pangu Think Tank, told Wallstreetcn that China Mobile’s pioneering launch of AI-eSIM products primarily aligns with the trend of integrating AI with the Internet of Things (IoT), meeting market demand for convenient connectivity and intelligent interaction in smart devices. **According to China Mobile, the core highlight of this AI-eSIM is its ability to schedule cloud-based models in real time, enabling devices to think autonomously and respond instantly.** Through the integration of cloud and network, China Mobile has deeply bound communication modules with AI computing power, endowing terminal devices with proactive thinking capabilities and lower interaction latency. Feng Xiaodong, head of the Physical AI product line at Agora, pointed out to Wallstreetcn that AI-eSIM enables devices to be “smart upon connecting to the internet,” representing an attempt by operators to transform from mere pipelines into intelligent computing power service providers. Regarding practical applications, China Mobile has clarified its initial focus on several key scenarios, including AI toys and smart wearable devices. Jiang Han believes that currently, AI toys, smart wearables, and pan-intelligent IoT devices are growing rapidly. Traditional SIM cards have limitations in remote management and flexible configuration, whereas AI-eSIM can effectively address pain points such as poor connection stability, complex configuration, and insufficient intelligence, thereby enhancing user experience and seizing early opportunities in the emerging smart hardware market. Taking the currently popular AI glasses as an example, they naturally possess first-person perspective sensing capabilities. However, at the hardware level, they are always constrained by the “impossible triangle” of weight, battery life, and performance. Leadleo Research Institute pointed out in its “2026 China Edge-Side AI Industry Research Report” that in the short term, AI glasses will serve as the interactive front-end, responsible for voice wake-up, visual perception, near-eye display, and scene triggering; AI smartphones will continue to serve as the computing foundation and ecological hub. In the medium to long term, as low-power SoCs, Micro LEDs, optical waveguides, and independent connectivity capabilities mature, AI glasses may gradually evolve from auxiliary entry points into more core platforms. AI-eSIM not only solves the issue of independent connectivity for AI glasses but also acts as an “external brain,” compensating for the shortcomings of smart glasses in terms of computing power and latency. **If equipped with AI-eSIM, when users issue commands to AI glasses, there could be significant improvements in both stability and response speed.** Li Hongwei, CEO of RayNeo Innovation, previously told Wallstreetcn that in the past, smart glasses had to pair with smartphones via Bluetooth, resulting in a less-than-ideal user experience. Furthermore, from a strategic perspective, if smart glasses are to truly become the “next-generation smartphone,” they need independence and cannot rely on smartphones indefinitely. Clearly, AI-eSIM provides an important breakthrough solution for improving the future experience of smart glasses. However, the cellular connectivity brought by embedding AI-eSIM will undoubtedly increase pressure on battery power consumption. For a long time, the most headache-inducing issue for operators has been “increasing volume without increasing revenue.” Although the number of 5G users has risen year after year, the fate of being mere pipelines has kept operators at the bottom of the value chain. In contrast, terminal manufacturers like Apple and Google, leveraging their operating systems and application ecosystems, have captured the vast majority of industry profits. By pioneering the launch of AI-eSIM, China Mobile is targeting the pain point of small edge devices having “insufficient local computing power and inability to perform high-level intelligence.” By installing a “shared cloud brain” in these small devices, it aims to open up new growth spaces for its own business. ## **The Inevitable Path After Massive Investment** Behind any strategic move lies a consideration of return on investment involving real money. In recent years, operators have made substantial investments in computing power infrastructure. From the “East Data, West Computing” nodes to edge data centers spread across the country, China Mobile has accumulated massive computing resources. In 2025, China Mobile accelerated the layout of its computing power network, with the total scale of intelligent computing reaching 92.5 EFLOPS (FP16), achieving full-specification computing capabilities ranging from hundreds to over ten thousands of cards. Simultaneously, it has perfected a three-tier computing power latency circle: 1 millisecond within metropolitan areas, 5 milliseconds within provinces, and 20 milliseconds nationwide. The inter-provincial backbone 400G OTN network basically covers the entire country, and the number of standard IDC racks available for external services exceeds 1.5 million. Against the backdrop of peaked growth in traditional communication businesses, computing power services have now joined communication services and intelligent services to form China Mobile’s three main business pillars. Chen Zhongyue, Chairman of China Mobile, recently stated publicly that China Mobile must strengthen its full-stack innovation and integrated service capabilities in communication, computing power, and intelligence, while enhancing the supply of intelligent computing centers and cloud computing services. In China Mobile’s 2025 financial report, the company explicitly disclosed its computing power service revenue for the first time, achieving an annual revenue of RMB 89.8 billion, a year-on-year increase of 11.1%. How to digest massive computing power and convert it into sustainable commercial revenue is the most realistic problem facing operators, including China Mobile. Jiang Han believes that AI-eSIM is a crucial component of China Mobile’s AI strategic layout. It not only perfects its intelligent connectivity service system but also facilitates the output of computing power services, empowering various smart terminals with computing resources through cloud-edge collaboration. **China Mobile’s current launch of AI-eSIM clearly reflects a proactive strategy: rather than waiting for third-party applications to rent computing power, it is better to bundle computing power directly into communication modules for sale.** When an AI-eSIM chip is embedded into an AI toy or a pair of AI glasses, what China Mobile sells is no longer just a tariff package including data traffic and call duration, but a subscription agreement encompassing “connectivity + computing power + model services.” **Feng Xiaodong pointed out that AI-eSIM also brings innovations to the AI hardware market, such as AI toys and smart wearable devices. For instance, the built-in token account in AI-eSIM supports billing based on computing power consumption. China Mobile can bundle tokens together for sale to customers, which not only brings more incremental revenue but also promotes a shift in AI hardware from one-time hardware sales to a model of continuously earning AI subscription fees.** This transformation is systemic. In the second half of 2025, China’s three major operators all launched eSIM handling services. By 2026, this support had evolved from simple internet access to enabling intelligent upgrades. Looking further ahead, AI-eSIM is also China Mobile’s strategic positioning for the “next generation of smart terminals.” Once smart glasses, smartwatches, and even AI toys can operate independently of smartphones, user dependence on communication terminals will shift. When hardware is no longer an accessory to smartphones, operators can accommodate this generational change in hardware through AI-eSIM. Future business models may consequently be restructured. In this era where computing power is power, China Mobile’s AI-eSIM will undoubtedly bring a top-down reconstruction of rules to the entire hardware industry chain, redefining the connectivity methods, computing power allocation, and commercial value distribution landscape of smart terminals. ### Related Stocks - [600941.CN](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/600941.CN.md) - [00941.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/00941.HK.md) ## Related News & Research - [Telecom giant China Mobile to launch AI-eSIM product](https://longbridge.com/en/news/285298633.md) - [Kimi reportedly nears $2 billion funding round at over $20 billion valuation](https://longbridge.com/en/news/285476868.md) - [Pockets, Sun Protection and The Boob Lab: How Title Nine is Serving Outdoor Women](https://longbridge.com/en/news/285214502.md) - [Lepu Biopharma Exits Biotech Marker Regime After Meeting HKEX Mainboard Tests](https://longbridge.com/en/news/285380638.md) - [12:05 ETHuayan Robotics to Debut in Broader America at FABTECH Mexico 2026 After HKEX Listing](https://longbridge.com/en/news/285237031.md)