Tencent To Double AI Investments To $5.2 Billion Amid China’s OpenClaw Frenzy |
China's Tencent plans to at least double its AI-related spending to 36 billion yuan ($5.2 billion) this year, as the gaming and social media giant invests in model training, talent acquisition and ramps up marketing of its AI agent services.
Executives led by billionaire Chairman and CEO Ma Huateng announced the hike in AI investments during a Wednesday conference call accompanying the company’s latest quarterly result release. The spending doesn’t cover purchases of chips needed to train its AI model.
The company has ample resources to pour into AI. During the final three months of last year, revenues grew 13% year-on-year to 194.4 billion yuan thanks to strong performance from its online games unit. Net profit was up 14% to 58.3 billion yuan from the same period a year ago.
But its Hong Kong-listed shares fell almost 7% Thursday as the company says it might reduce share repurchases this year to allocate more resources to AI. Last year, the tech giant spent HK$80 billion ($10.2 billion) to buy back a total of 153.4 million shares, helping prop up its share price – which has risen about 50% during 2025. The potential reduction might remove one supporting factor behind the rally, says Kenny Ng, a Hong Kong-based securities strategist at Everbright Securities International.
AI investments, meanwhile, take much longer to pay off, Ng notes. Ma, who is China’s third richest man with a net worth of $53.3 billion, according to Forbes’ Real Time Billionaires List, also confirmed earlier media reports that the company is working on an AI agent service for WeChat. The product got inspiration from OpenClaw, an AI assistant created by Austrian developer Peter Steinberger that has ignited a frenzy in China known as “raising a lobster.”
The phenomenon is named after OpenClaw’s crustacean logo. Users across all walks of life in the world’s second-largest economy have rushed to install the service, which can not only chat, but also perform tasks such as manage files, draft email responses and book tickets. Tencent, as well as Chinese firms including AI model developers MiniMax and Zhipu, have recently launched services compatible with OpenClaw, promising to help users install, customize and deploy the agent more easily.
Ma said the forthcoming agent within WeChat can also execute tasks for its over 1.4 billion users, as it can be connected with the messaging service’s embedded mini programs. Such programs now total hundreds of thousands in number and range from shopping to food delivery.
But executives declined to provide a timeline on the agent’s release. During the call, Ma said the company isn’t in a rush and is working slowly but steadily on the product.
In the meantime, Tencent will spend more to promote its already launched Yuanbao digital assistant. Together with fellow tech giants including Alibaba and ByteDance, the company has shelled out $1.1 billion in subsidies during the week-long Lunar New Year holiday in February, offering discounts and coupons to consumers who used their AI chatbots to buy movie tickets and order meals, according to Morgan Stanley’s estimates.
Executives said they are satisfied with the results of the Lunar New Year campaign. But its Yuanbao digital assistant is still lagging in popularity. The product had 15.6 million monthly active users in March, falling behind Alibaba's Qwen (33 million monthly active users) and ByteDance’s Doubao (98.9 million), according to Chinese ranking site aicpb.com.
Yet Thomas Chong, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Jefferies, expresses optimism. In a March 19 research note, Chong pointed to Tencent’s advantages including its vast user base and many consumer-oriented services. “Tencent is well positioned to capture Agentic AI, backed by its strong execution and ecosystem,” Chong wrote.