China Mobile Limited (CHINA MOBILE), China United Network Communications Limited (CHINA UNICOM), and CHINA TELECOM have all released their 2025 annual reports. The three major telecom operators achieved steady revenue growth for the year and announced substantial dividend distributions.
According to the announcements, CHINA MOBILE plans to distribute a final dividend of approximately 49.266 billion yuan for 2025, bringing the total annual dividend payout to about 103.532 billion yuan. CHINA TELECOM intends to issue a final dividend of 8.309 billion yuan, with total dividends for the year reaching around 24.89 billion yuan. CHINA UNICOM proposed a final dividend of about 1.635 billion yuan, resulting in total annual dividends of approximately 5.112 billion yuan. Combined, the three operators plan to distribute final dividends totaling 59.21 billion yuan for 2025, with full-year dividends exceeding 130 billion yuan.
In 2025, CHINA MOBILE reported operating revenue of 10.50187 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.9%. Total profit reached 1.75608 trillion yuan, down 1.6% from the previous year, while net profit attributable to parent company shareholders was 1.37095 trillion yuan, a decrease of 0.9%. CHINA TELECOM achieved operating revenue of 5.23925 trillion yuan, up 0.1% year-on-year, with total profit rising 1.2% to 426.8 billion yuan. Net profit attributable to listed company shareholders grew 0.5% to 331.85 billion yuan. CHINA UNICOM recorded operating revenue of 3.92223 trillion yuan, an increase of 0.7%, with total profit up 0.8% to 253.03 billion yuan. Net profit attributable to parent company shareholders rose 1.1% to 91.27 billion yuan.
The revenue structure of the three operators continued to optimize, with emerging businesses accounting for a growing share. Computing power services have become a key growth driver for CHINA MOBILE's high-quality development. In 2025, the company's data center revenue increased by 8.7% year-on-year, with AIDC revenue surging 35.4%. Benefiting from rapid growth in intelligent computing demand, CHINA MOBILE's intelligent computing services became the primary engine, growing 279% and driving cloud computing service revenue up 13.9%. Computing power service revenue reached 89.8 billion yuan, an 11.1% increase.
CHINA TELECOM's strategic emerging industries maintained rapid growth. Tianyi Cloud revenue reached 1.207 trillion yuan, with public cloud IaaS market share rising to second domestically. IaaS+PaaS market share ranked among the top three in China. AIDC revenue totaled 345 billion yuan, security revenue reached 166 billion yuan, and intelligent revenue amounted to 123 billion yuan. Video network revenue grew 31.2%, quantum revenue increased 65.4%, and satellite revenue rose 30.7%.
For CHINA UNICOM, strategic emerging industries accounted for over 86% of revenue, while computing power business revenue exceeded 15%, up 1.1 percentage points from the previous year. Artificial intelligence revenue surged more than 140% year-on-year. International business revenue reached 136 billion yuan, an increase of over 9%.
Executives from all three operators stated during earnings briefings that they will continue to increase investment in computing power in 2026. CHINA MOBILE Chairman Chen Zhongyue indicated that 2025 capital expenditure was 150.9 billion yuan, down 8.0% year-on-year. For 2026, the company plans to control capital expenditure at approximately 136.6 billion yuan, a decrease of 9.5%. Specifically, communication network capital expenditure will drop 20.3% to about 79.2 billion yuan, while computing power network capital expenditure will rise 62.4% to 37.8 billion yuan. Intelligent network capital expenditure will increase 19.8% to 8.9 billion yuan.
CHINA TELECOM Chairman Ke Ruiwen announced that the company will continue optimizing capital expenditure in 2026, with a full-year investment plan of 73 billion yuan. Computing infrastructure investment will account for 25.5 billion yuan, up 26% year-on-year, representing 35% of total investment. CHINA UNICOM Chairman Dong Xin stated that the company will strictly control capital expenditure at around 50 billion yuan in 2026, with computing investment exceeding 35% of the total. Long-term, computing investment's share in CHINA UNICOM's capital expenditure will continue to increase.
As 2026 marks the beginning of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, all three operators have outlined their upcoming work objectives. CHINA MOBILE aims to ensure steady growth in communication service revenue during the 15th Five-Year Plan, with computing service revenue targeted to double by the end of the period. Intelligent service revenue is also expected to double. The company strives to basically build a world-class technology service enterprise by 2030 and fully achieve this goal by 2035, becoming a globally leading communication operator, computing operator, and intelligent operator.
CHINA TELECOM stated it will seize strategic development opportunities in 2026, fully implement its cloud transformation and digital intelligence strategy, and deepen its "five-in-one" intelligent cloud system. The company aims to become a leading AI service provider, with token services as its operational focus, strengthening original innovation and key technology breakthroughs.
CHINA UNICOM will focus on core areas including "connectivity," "computing power," "services," and "security" in 2026. The company plans to enhance the competitiveness of Unicom Cloud, accelerate the development of an "intelligent agent + token + AI cloud" computing power business model, and promote comprehensive intelligent upgrades. It will actively expand service innovation to create a second growth curve and drive scale development of cloud intelligence products.