China’s telecoms giants are pushing for “air-space-ground-sea” networks amid Beijing’s push to expand AI infrastructure, as SpaceX’s market debut has ignited industry focus beyond Earth. At the opening of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) Shanghai on Wednesday, executives framed the next phase of infrastructure as needing to encompass skies and oceans for AI computing demand. Wang Tao, rotating chairman of Huawei Technologies, said AI’s agentic capabilities require extending internet coverage from the current 20 per cent on the ground to 100 per cent “across high altitudes, oceans and deserts”. He expected the number of AI agents to reach up to 1 trillion globally by 2030, pushing operators beyond urban borders. Wang, who became Huawei’s rotating chairman in April, said 2026 marked a “crucial inflection point for mobile communication”. With 5G users in China now exceeding 1.1 billion, the coming decade demanded an unprecedented technological leap. Zhang Zhiyong, chairman of state-owned China Tower, said the company was leveraging its base station locations to forge a network covering air, space, ground and sea. China Tower currently manages over 6.2 million base stations, including 3.28 million dedicated to 5G.