Rest of World: Chinese Banks and Telecoms Package AI Tokens Like Credit-Card Points and Data Plans

Rest of World reports Chinese firms are turning AI tokens into everyday consumer rewards: Moonshot AI struck Kimi-token deals with Agricultural Bank of China and American Express, while China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom sell token plans starting at 9.9 yuan (~$1.40) for 10M tokens. Daily token consumption in China hit 500 trillion by mid-2026, up from 100B in early 2024, with Chinese models priced 60-90% below OpenAI and Anthropic. Restaurants like Beijing's Jingu Yuan even hand out 10-yuan compute credits per meal, and Guangzhou lenders are testing 'token loans' that score startups by their token production and consumption.