Mahuat'en: Tencent bets everything on AI (while others economize on food)

When a person of Pony Ma's caliber says a company is spending money on only one thing, it's worth listening. At Tencent's recent annual meeting, the head of the Chinese tech giant laid out priorities with maximum severity: 2025 is officially declared the "year of AI". While all other businesses in China and beyond are trying to find solid ground after prolonged turbulence, Tencent switches into directed-explosion mode.

The only area where the company doesn't just have a presence, but literally floods the market with money — is artificial intelligence. Context here matters more than the words themselves. Tencent has always been known for its caution and ability to wait while competitors make mistakes.

But the situation is different now. Ma Huateng noted that while other players burn resources on operational hassles in food delivery or group buying segments, his empire is focusing on a complete rebuild of its flagship Hunyuan model. Over the past year, the project has undergone serious structural transformation.

Now the goal isn't just to "do what OpenAI does," but to attract what are called AI-native talents — people who didn't retrain from classical programming, but think in terms of neural network architectures from the start. It's interesting to observe this against the backdrop of the industry's general state. While Tencent hires PhDs and recuts budgets, other giants are tightening their belts.

Ericsson plans to cut another 5,000 people in 2026, continuing the prolonged slide begun this year. Even the consumer sector is convulsing: KFC in China is raising delivery prices to compensate for operational costs. This creates a clear contrast: the old economy and classic telecom equipment are stagnating, surrendering vitality and capital on the altar of generative models.

However, the path to AI dominance is blocked not only by technical difficulties but also by bureaucracy. While Tencent builds plans for 2025, Elon Musk and his xAI have collided with a concrete wall of European regulation. The European Commission is launching an official investigation against Grok under the Digital Services Act (DSA).

The tone of official Brussels leaves no illusions: the goal of the process is to effectively squeeze Grok off the European market if the company doesn't comply with strict moderation and data transparency rules. This creates a dangerous precedent where an innovative product can be blocked across an entire region simply because regulators can't keep pace with its development speed. For Tencent, this European situation is simultaneously a warning and an opportunity.

Chinese companies are accustomed to operating under strict internal oversight, so the expansion of their AI solutions may prove more prepared for legal battles in the West than the chaotic forays of Musk's companies. Ma Huateng emphasized that Tencent will act "stably and confidently," which in corporate language means readiness to play for the long term, not squandering on minor scandals. The transformation of the Hunyuan team and focus on new-generation talent suggest that Tencent understands: AI is not just a feature for the WeChat messenger, but the foundation on which the entire company will stand in the coming decade.

If previously the company grew through users' social connections, now it's betting on the intelligence that will serve these connections. The only question is whether they'll grow their "AI-native" geniuses faster than regulators worldwide build new digital borders. The bottom line: Tencent is definitively transforming from a social network into an AI corporation, ignoring expenses.

Will the Hunyuan model become a real competitor to GPT-5 in the global market, or will it remain locked within the Chinese ecosystem?