Tencent is planning to expand data centres in regions spanning Asia and Europe, including the Middle East, CNBC reported on Jan. 27.
Dowson Tong (톤 다우슨), CEO of Tencent Cloud, told CNBC in an interview that the company is actively considering building data centres in the Middle East and is also planning to expand investment and partnerships.
Tencent's move is seen as a signal that it will compete with U.S. big tech as the Middle East rapidly emerges as a hub for AI and cloud infrastructure investment.
Last year, Nvidia and OpenAI pursued large-scale AI infrastructure projects in the United Arab Emirates, and Gartner forecast that Middle East and North Africa IT spending in 2025 would rise 9 percent from a year earlier to $155 billion. Tencent already operates a data centre in Saudi Arabia.
Tencent is pushing a strategy to diversify its game-centric revenue structure by expanding cloud services. Tong said clients in Saudi Arabia are using Tencent Cloud, and gaming companies in particular are adopting it actively.
Chi-gyu Hwang
delight@d-today.co.kr