MediaTek Highlights "Token Economy" and Predicts 24x Growth in AI Token Consumption by 2030
At MediaTek's Dimensity flagship launch event, General Manager Chen Guanzhou stated that the era of the "Token economy" has arrived, driven by AI agents. He projected global monthly Token consumption to increase by over 24 times to approximately 120 quadrillion tokens by 2030. As generative AI transitions from cloud infrastructure to edge devices like smartphones, processing AI workloads locally becomes a key growth driver for semiconductor manufacturers. MediaTek's forecast underscores how autonomous AI agents will shift compute demands and accelerate hardware upgrades across consumer electronics. MediaTek estimates the global semiconductor market Total Addressable Market (TAM) will grow 43% between 2023 and 2026, exceeding 11.4 trillion RMB by 2027. The company emphasizes edge AI as the primary focus for future mobile processor architecture and performance enhancements.
## BACKGROUND
In generative AI, a "token" is the fundamental unit of text or data processed by large language models, serving as the core metric for compute usage and costs. An "AI agent" is an autonomous system powered by LLMs capable of planning, utilizing tools, and executing multi-step workflows, which consumes substantially more tokens than simple prompt-and-response interactions.