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Zhou Xin

Xinmei Shen

Tencent Holdings is aiming for “aggressive” growth in the international cloud computing market, on the back of the growing appetite overseas for Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) models, according to a senior executive.
That sharpened focus by Tencent stems from how its overseas cloud operations have been expanding “the fastest among all [its business] segments”, with “high double-digit growth over the past few years”, said senior executive vice-president Dowson Tong Tao-sang, who serves as CEO of the Shenzhen-based firm’s Cloud and Smart Industries Group (CSIG), in an interview with the Post on Thursday.
AI was a major driver for that growth, according to Tong. “There’s a lot of opportunities” to bring Chinese open-source AI models to overseas clients, he added.
“Many of these AI-powered apps are growing very fast, so we definitely have very aggressive growth targets and we have been on track.”
Targeting AI opportunities beyond China reflected Tencent’s efforts to keep pace with rapid developments in the field, where competition has intensified among innovative start-ups like DeepSeek and internet peers Alibaba Group Holding, Baidu and ByteDance. Alibaba owns the Post.
“[In] some of the markets we’re looking at, they want to host large language models within their own region,” Tong said. “We have a lot of tools to help them leverage open-source models, based on our expertise and experience in implementing products around AI.”

Tencent, which runs the world’s largest video gaming business by revenue and operates the Chinese super app WeChat, was the mainland’s third-biggest AI public cloud services provider in 2024 when the market reached 19.6 billion yuan (US$2.7 billion), according to research firm IDC. Alibaba Cloud and Baidu led the market last year.
Outside China, the Asia-Pacific region was Tencent Cloud’s “fastest-growing market” where the company intends to increase its investments, according to Tong. He said the company was seeing “very good progress” in the European market.
The Chinese tech giant’s cloud business was initially launched to serve internet services providers, including video gaming companies and video platform operators. Tong said Tencent Cloud has expanded its reach to cover more industries including finance, retail and Web3.
Earlier this year, Tencent made sweeping changes to its AI product portfolio. It incorporated several apps – including QQ Browser, keyboard tool Sogou Pinyin and learning assistant Ima – into the CSIG from their previous home at the firm’s Platform & Content Group.
The restructuring came about because “we see pretty much all applications can be redone with AI, or enhanced by AI or create new versions with AI being an integral part of it”, Tong said.
“Because CSIG has now taken the responsibility of running some tool-based products, some of the products that moved to my group are geared towards productivity – tools that many consumers have been using for a while,” he said. “So we will continue to find user pain points and use AI to make many of these products easier to use.”

Outside China, Tencent Cloud will compete with global leaders – including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Google – which collectively hold more than half of the world’s cloud infrastructure services market.
“I don’t think some of these offer consumer-facing AI products, except Google,” Tong said. “I do not believe we’re looking at any competitive situation on the consumer side.”
Tencent is among Chinese tech giants that have significantly increased its AI spending, including snapping up advanced chips for AI training. Tong said Tencent “works with global vendors as well as domestic vendors very closely”, and that the company has “sufficient resources” to meet the “large appetite for computing power”.
Tencent’s second-quarter earnings beat analysts’ forecasts, as AI delivered a boost to its financial results. The company’s revenue jumped 15 per cent year on year to 184.5 billion yuan, while net profit rose 16 per cent to 56 billion yuan.
The company was able to grow its sales and profitability because “we invested in and also benefited from utilising AI”, the company said in its earnings release on Wednesday.
Revenue from Tencent’s fintech and business services operations, which include its cloud business, rose 10 per cent year on year, according to the company.
Tencent’s Hong Kong-listed shares closed 0.83 per cent lower to HK$594 on Thursday. Its stock has risen more than 40 per cent this year.


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Tencent says there is a lot of opportunities to bring Chinese open-source AI models to overseas clients


Tencent says there is a lot of opportunities to bring Chinese open-source AI models to overseas clients.


Tencent counts on demand for Chinese AI tools to lift overseas cloud computing business

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Tencent says there is a lot of opportunities to bring Chinese open-source AI models to overseas clients

Tencent says there is a lot of opportunities to bring Chinese open-source AI models to overseas clients