21世纪经济报道·2026-03-18 08:51Core Viewpoint - The rapid development of global AI applications has led to a significant increase in demand for computing power, prompting major cloud service providers like Baidu and Alibaba Cloud to raise prices for their AI computing and storage products by 5% to 34% [1][3]. Group 1: Price Adjustments - Baidu announced a price increase of approximately 5% to 30% for AI computing services and a 30% increase for parallel file storage services, effective from April 18, 2026 [1]. - Alibaba Cloud's price adjustments include a maximum increase of 34% for AI computing and storage products, with specific products like the PingTouGe Zhenwu 810E computing card seeing increases between 5% and 34% [3]. Group 2: Market Reactions - Following the price hikes, Alibaba's stock surged over 4% in Hong Kong, with other companies like Kingsoft Cloud and MINIMAX also experiencing significant stock price increases of over 20% [3]. - The A-share computing power industry saw a strong performance, with concepts related to computing power leasing and storage chips gaining traction [3]. Group 3: Token Consumption and Demand - The surge in token consumption, particularly for the OpenClaw application, has led to a doubling of platform processing volume to 14.8 trillion tokens in the first week of March 2026 compared to the beginning of the year [6]. - The increase in token consumption indicates a shift in AI industry value from model capability to task completion capability, creating structural impacts on computing power infrastructure and driving demand for both centralized and edge computing [6]. Group 4: Industry Outlook - With the explosion of token consumption in the domestic market, domestic computing power is expected to gradually dominate the infrastructure layer due to cost advantages and a well-developed ecosystem [6].