China Mobile charts AI-driven path to 6G

China Mobile unveiled on Wednesday a strategic vision that places artificial intelligence at the core of its next-generation network development, pledging to steer 6G research and development through the lens of AI demands.

Addressing the 2026 World Mobile Congress Shanghai, China Mobile Chairman Chen Zhongyue outlined the telecom giant's ambition to redefine the very meaning of "mobile" – expanding it from "mobile communication" to encompass "mobile computing" and "mobile AI". This strategic pivot, he said, reflects the profound transformation AI is bringing to every facet of human life and industry.

"The AI revolution is reshaping production and daily life, offering operators unprecedented space for growth and deeper service capabilities," Chen stated. China Mobile has accordingly embraced a "technology serving enterprise" vision, prioritizing intelligence as its strategic compass.

On the service front, the company is building an open intelligent service ecosystem spanning both consumers and industries, Chen said. For households, AI is being integrated into sports, cultural, and financial scenarios, with innovations including AI-powered smartphones, smart glasses, and humanoid robots. A notable example is the company's unit Migu, which has developed AI agents for the 2026 World Cup that convert real-time match data into visual tactical analytics for enhanced viewer engagement.

For industrial sectors, China Mobile's "Tiangong" industrial internet platform is serving steel, manufacturing, and energy verticals. In one collaboration with a steel partner, an "intelligent visual monitoring" technology has replaced human observation at furnace mouths, transitioning steelmaking from experience-driven to data-driven precision.

Chen said underpinning these applications are two core capabilities: the MobileClaw agent framework, which equips AI with practical "skill packages" to move beyond conversation to action; and the MoMA model platform, which hosts over 300 mainstream AI models in a "token supermarket" for secure and reliable enterprise adoption.

On the infrastructure side, China Mobile is accelerating the convergence of communication and computing power. The company is advancing 5G-Advanced network, 10-gigabit optical networks, and integrated space-ground networks, while actively shaping 6G development to meet AI requirements for applications like industrial automation, telemedicine, and the low-altitude economy. It is also building a unified computing network anchored by large-scale intelligent computing centers, with an "edge-to-core" hierarchical computing architecture to support model training and agent deployment.