Hubei has seen the launch of its first "Token Loan" in Optics Valley of China (OVC). A startup specializing in AI information services has received a credit line of 3 million yuan ($447,252), with 2 million yuan earmarked for purchasing tokens.

Tokens are the smallest measurable units used by large models to process information and serve as standardized units for AI computational power settlement. Companies pay based on token consumption each time they utilize a large model.

The "Token Loan" is one of the Bank of China's Tech Innovation Computational Power Loan products. The bank converts a company's monthly token consumption into a certain amount of renminbi, offering credit up to approximately 80 percent of this amount. The loan can be used directly for token purchases or for R&D and business operations.

The CEO of the first company to receive the "Token Loan" noted that traditional loans, which require fixed asset collateral, were difficult to obtain. With the "Token Loan", the bank is willing to trust the company, and the approval process took less than a month, significantly easing financial pressure.

"The product is unique in that it uses dynamic business data, like token consumption, as a basis for credit, rather than relying on real estate collateral,” said Wang Chen, deputy general manager of Bank of China's Wuhan Free Trade Zone Branch. "The more AI companies consume tokens, the faster their business grows, which strengthens our confidence in lending."