China Merchants Securities: Token consumption continues to surge, Token operations reach a development inflection point.

China Merchants Securities released a research report stating that in the multi-model era, Token operations are expected to become important infrastructure connecting model supply with AI applications. As the number of foundation models continues to increase and different models diverge in capabilities, cost, speed, and stability, it is gradually becoming the norm for downstream developers to simultaneously call multiple models and multiple providers. Token operation platforms aggregate models through unified APIs and further provide services such as model selection, intelligent routing, Token metering, unified settlement, and enterprise governance. Their role is evolving from a simple model access tool to an AI traffic distribution and enterprise invocation control layer. The bank believes that as the scale of Token invocations and usage scenarios continue to expand, the value of Token operations is expected to rise further.