Tencent can shoulder latest US tech export restrictions as internet giant has large stockpile of much-coveted Nvidia AI chips

Tencent Holdings, a leading Chinese internet company, has announced that it has a large stockpile of Nvidia's H800 artificial intelligence (AI) chips. This is important because the US government has made it harder to send advanced technology like these chips to China. Despite this, Tencent's president, Martin Lau, said they have enough chips to keep working on their AI project called Hunyuan for some time. They were one of the first to order these chips, which are a special version made for China.

Tencent, known for its huge video gaming and social media platforms, is focusing on AI as a key area for growth. They launched Hunyuan to compete with other AI technologies and are now using it in many of their services. Although their revenue increased, their profits saw a slight decrease. The company is cautious about diving into the AI trend, which is very popular in China right now. They are also waiting for Nvidia to release new chips that comply with the US's updated tech export rules.

Baidu, another tech giant, has moved quickly to secure AI chips from Huawei after the US restrictions. There has also been a market for illegally imported Nvidia chips in China. Tencent is not rushing to make money from Hunyuan yet and is still in the early stages of developing it. They have made Hunyuan available to business clients and integrated it into over 180 of their internal services, but it's not yet offered to the general public.