[News] Tencent Reportedly Says No Plans for In-House AI Chips, Pledges to Use Domestic Options

According to South Korean outlet News1, Chinese tech giant Tencent has made it clear it has no intention of producing AI chips, stressing that it neither manufactures them now nor plans to in the future. This contrasts with other major Chinese tech firms, which have responded to U.S. restrictions on NVIDIA’s AI chip exports by accelerating their own chip development, the report notes.

As highlighted by Chinese media outlet WallStreetCN, Tencent said it has fully adapted to domestic chips, aiming to ease computing power shortages through a full-stack optimization strategy that integrates different types of chips to deliver cost-effective AI capacity.

Dowson Tong, Senior Executive Vice President of Tencent and CEO of the Cloud & Smart Industries Group, explained that in response to U.S. export controls, Tencent is developing improved algorithms and building clusters to maximize the resources available for model training, News1 reported.

Meanwhile, Tencent is drawing a strategic distinction between its China and overseas businesses. According to Tong, as cited by News1, the company has increased its use of Chinese-made chips over the past year as more domestic products have become available. By contrast, in overseas markets, local partners supply the chips while Tencent provides software expertise.

In addition, according to WallStreetCN, Tencent Cloud has continued to expand infrastructure investment this year, with its international business sustaining strong double-digit growth over the past three years. On the infrastructure front, Tencent plans to invest $150 million to build its first Middle East data center in Saudi Arabia and a third data center in Osaka, Japan.

Beyond Tencent: Huawei, Baidu, and Alibaba Step Up in AI Chips

As noted by News1, while Tencent maintains it will not launch its own AI chip, other major Chinese tech firms are accelerating self-sufficiency efforts under U.S. restrictions. Huawei has developed its Ascend processor, reportedly adopted by generative AI startup DeepSeek, while Baidu’s subsidiary Kunlunxin is using the Kunlun P800 to train and test its ERNIE large language model.

Notably, according to Economic Daily News, citing Wall Street Journal, sources say Alibaba introduced a new AI chip this month that is more versatile than its predecessors, designed to fill the gap left by NVIDIA’s regulatory hurdles in China.

Read more

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(Photo credit: Tencent)