Tencent unveils AI model in high-stakes test for OpenAI hire

[SHENZHEN] Tencent revealed a major upgrade to its foundational model, marking the first high-stakes test for China’s most valuable company to assert its place in a frenetic artificial intelligence race since it recruited a top researcher from OpenAI.

The social media leader on Thursday (Apr 23) unveiled a preview of the Hy3 model, which it called its most powerful yet.

The Hy3 – a reference to Tencent’s main Hunyuan platform – represents a big advance in areas from complex reasoning to coding.

The model, which supports OpenClaw, is now available via a wide suite of Tencent products, including its chatbot, coding tool and instant-messaging platform QQ.

The company is playing catch-up with peers including ByteDance and Alibaba, as well as up-and-comers such as DeepSeek, in the release of cost-efficient AI models to a market of more than a billion Internet users.

That effort is now led by Yao Shunyu, its chief scientist for AI, and an OpenAI alumnus who is among the most prominent examples of US-trained researchers returning home to spearhead AI development.

The Shenzhen-based gaming and social media giant has restructured its research team to improve the quality of training data, executives said in March.

They vowed to double the company’s investments in AI initiatives to more than US$5 billion in 2026.

Tencent is betting on a shift to so-called agentic AI – software capable of performing complex tasks with minimal human input – that could reshape the leadership of the world’s biggest Internet arena. 

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In March, the WeChat operator rolled out a slew of products capitalising on the viral OpenClaw framework.

It is developing an AI agent inside its flagship app to help users automate tasks – from hailing a ride to booking hotels.

Similar to Alibaba, Tencent has backed a crop of AI upstarts – including Moonshot AI and StepFun – hoping the ties will boost computing-power usage for its burgeoning cloud division.

It is now in discussions to join a maiden round of financing for Chinese AI pioneer DeepSeek, Bloomberg News reported.

China’s AI race is entering a higher-stakes phase, as a worsening computing-power crunch compels developers, big and small, to abandon discounts and hike fees.

Alibaba and ByteDance now lead the race for photorealistic AI-video generation, though peers such as Kuaishou Technology also vie for dominance. 

And on Monday, Moonshot rolled out its latest Kimi K2.6 model, featuring improved agentic and coding capabilities.

DeepSeek’s next-generation V4 model is also expected to debut in the coming weeks. BLOOMBERG