Tencent Holdings reported a strong 13% year-on-year revenue increase in the first quarter of 2024, reaching 180 billion yuan ($24.97 billion) and beating analysts’ expectations. The gains were largely fueled by growth in domestic and international gaming, AI-powered advertising, and financial technology services.
Despite ongoing U.S. restrictions on advanced chip exports, Tencent President Martin Lau downplayed the impact, stating that the company had previously stockpiled AI chips, enabling it to maintain momentum in its artificial intelligence development plans.
“The good thing is that we have a strong stockpile of chips… useful for executing our AI strategy,” Lau said during the earnings call.
While Nvidia’s H20 chip and other high-end processors have been barred from sale to Chinese firms under U.S. export restrictions, Tencent noted that alternative chips are available domestically, and its software advancements would help optimize chip usage.
Key Financial Highlights (Q1 2024):
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Revenue: 180 billion yuan (vs. 174.6B expected, LSEG)
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Net profit: 47.8 billion yuan (below 52.2B analyst estimate)
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Domestic gaming revenue: Up 24% to 42.9B yuan
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International gaming revenue: Up 23% to 16.6B yuan
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Marketing services revenue: Up 22% to 17.7B yuan
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FinTech & Business Services revenue: Up 16% to 27.6B yuan
AI and Strategic Investments
Tencent reaffirmed its commitment to AI development, planning to allocate a low double-digit percentage of 2025 revenue to capital expenditure, primarily targeting AI infrastructure. The company continues to evolve its proprietary large language model Hunyuan, and recently released a public-facing version named T1.
Tencent has also emerged as a collaborative leader among Chinese tech giants, integrating AI models from DeepSeek, an emerging firm known for developing competitive, cost-efficient alternatives to Western AI systems.
Broader Implications
The company’s performance illustrates Tencent’s resilience in the face of geopolitical tech tensions, while demonstrating the commercial viability of China’s AI ecosystem—even under hardware constraints. Its diverse revenue base, spanning gaming, advertising, and financial services, is increasingly supported by AI innovation, keeping Tencent at the forefront of China’s digital economy.