Surging demand for AI agents fuels Hong Kong’s race to expand computing power As leading Chinese chip executives predict that autonomous AI agents will trigger an unprecedented explosion in computing demand, Hong Kong is accelerating efforts to expand its artificial intelligence computing capacity. Calling token consumption in the era of AI “far beyond our imagination”, Zhang Jianzhong, founder and CEO of graphics processing unit designer Moore Threads, said at an AI summit in Hong Kong on Saturday that the exponential surge in demand had made it impossible for anyone to accurately predict future needs. Zhang argued that competitive edge was no longer about sheer volume; rather, it was to do with cost efficiency. “Whoever offers the cheapest tokens will be able to build better infrastructure for everyone,” he said. Chen Weiliang, chairman and general manager of chip designer MetaX, echoed Zhang’s views. Citing a recent SemiAnalysis report, Chen attributed a 6,400 per cent increase in average daily token consumption to the industry’s transition from basic large language models to agentic AI workflows. Hong Kong currently has 5 ExaFLOPS of computing power, compared with 60 ExaFLOPS in Beijing and 120 ExaFLOPS in Shanghai, according to Zhang, another speaker at the AI Summit. The current Hong Kong administration has made significant strides in building up its AI infrastructure, according to Peter Yan King-shun, director general of the government’s Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises. Yan noted the recently announced supercomputing hub in the Northern Metropolis, which was projected to boost the city’s total computing power 36-fold to 180 ExaFLOPS over its first three years. Hong Kong’s local expansion is unfolding against the backdrop of a massive nationwide push on the Chinese mainland. The country’s total computing power hit 962 ExaFLOPS at the end of June 2025, following a 73 per cent year-on-year surge, according to a report by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology. China now accounts for 21 per cent of the world’s total computing capacity. The report also noted that over the past eight years the country maintained an average annual growth rate of 48 per cent in computing power, outpacing global averages. Forward-looking investments are also fuelled by the anticipation of future growth. Futurist Rohit Talwar, who defines artificial general intelligence (AGI) as AI operating at human parity across all intellectual domains, said that organisations were currently working on securing the right infrastructure, talent, data and platforms to ensure they are ready for AGI when it arrives. https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3347609/surging-demand-ai-agents-fuels-hong-kongs-race-expand-computing-power?pgtype=live (ICE HONG KONG)

Fonte notizia: South China Morning Post