China Unicom reported an operating revenue topping 392.2 billion yuan ($56.98 billion) for 2025, with revenue from its artificial intelligence-related businesses soaring 147 percent year-on-year, as the company vowed to ramp up investment in expanding its computing services.

The telecom giant released its 2025 annual results on Thursday, saying the revenue growth remained solid, driven primarily by its “strategic emerging industries” businesses, which accounted for more than 86 percent of total revenue.

Net profit edged up 1 percent from a year earlier to 20.8 billion yuan, while free cash flow surged 28.5 percent to 36 billion yuan, thanks to improved operational efficiency.

By continuously improving its operational efficiency, the company said it saved more than 1.3 billion yuan in operating costs last year, while the capital expenditure was reduced to 54.2 billion yuan from about 61.4 billion yuan in 2024, reflecting improved investment efficiency.

Looking ahead, China Unicom expects capital expenditure to fall further to 50 billion yuan in 2026, with more than 35 percent earmarked for computing power building investment.

Dong Xin, chairman and CEO of China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd, said computing power services are one of the firm’s four key strategic priorities.

“Computing power is synonymous with innovation,” he said, describing the segment as a catalyst for the company’s future revenue growth. He pledged to keep strengthening the foundation of its computing power, with a focus on big data, AI, and cloud computing.

The company’s AI-related revenue — covering intelligent computing services, model and agent applications, and data services — jumped 147 percent year-on-year in 2025. Its data centers generated 28.1 billion yuan, up 8.5 percent from a year earlier.

The company said it will also tap new growth opportunities in AI token-based businesses. Tokens are small units of data used by AI models to process and understand inputs.

“In this booming AI era, we are convinced there is significantly more room for us to grow,” said Hao Liqian, the company’s senior vice-president. He said the company will aim to boost sales of computing power, AI models and related resources, thereby driving overall expansion in its token volumes.

Highlighting the company’s core values — “Preserve and Innovate, Steady and Far-Reaching” — Dong said China Unicom will continue to make solid progress in high-quality development and further broaden and deepen its network capabilities.

In 2025, China Unicom’s total subscriber base surpassed 1.2 billion, an increase of 110 million over the previous year.

Contact the writer at gabylin@chinadailyhk.com