First Read: Tencent Holdings "2026 AIC: Core resilience supports AI transition"

Research evidence excerpt

First Read: Tencent Holdings "2026 AIC: Core resilience supports AI transition"

Global Research

28 May 2026ab

First Read

EquitiesTencent Holdings

2026 AIC: Core resilience supports AI transition China

Internet Services

12-month rating Buy

AI strategy: Prioritizing model, new AI products and cloud

We hosted Tencent's CSO Mr. James Mitchell at our AIC. The majority of the discussion 12m price target HK$780.00

centers on Tencent's AI initiatives and strategic direction. Resource allocation: In our

view, mgmt has adopted a more aggressive stance on AI investment, prioritizing this

Price (28 May 2026) HK$425.00

over short-term profitability. Tencent would allocate more resources on model training,

agentic products (e.g. WorkBuddy/CodeBuddy), and Tencent Cloud. 1) Model: Tencent RIC: 0700.HK BBG: 700 HK

aspires to create frontier models by leveraging its extensive assets (e.g. world/ Trading data and key metrics

multimodal models utilizing games assets, agentic models built on socialgraph data),

52-wk range HK$677.50-425.00

while maintaining relationships with various text-to-text model providers (e.g.

Market cap. HK$3,861b/US$493b

DeepSeek) as alternatives. Regarding model strategy, Tencent's AI team has intentionally

Shares o/s 9,085m (ORD)

opted to begin with a smaller, architecturally refined model and scale up progressively. 2)

New AI products: Mgmt highlighted WorkBuddy's early success in terms of DAU, with Free float 66%

potential deepening integration with Weixin to further bolster its competitive edge. Avg. daily volume ('000) 27,810

Despite a relatively smaller user base, its retention rates are multiple times higher, also Avg. daily value (m) HK$13,725.8

with opportunities for upgrade more advanced and higher-priced models over time.