IT News on October 8th: This afternoon (the 8th), according to Bloomberg citing sources familiar with the matter, Tencent is considering issuing offshore bonds, with a financing scale of up to 5 billion US dollars (Note from IT: The current exchange rate is approximately 33.562 billion RMB). Growing demand has led more and more tech companies to seek debt financing, and Tencent has also joined in.

The bonds will be denominated in US dollars and offshore RMB, with the earliest issuance this month. The specific use of this round of financing is not yet clear. In June of this year, Tencent raised nearly $4.7 billion (approximately 31.549 billion RMB at current exchange rates) by issuing long-term US dollar and RMB bonds, which was the largest bond issuance since 2020. The funds will mainly be used for debt refinancing and general corporate purposes, including the development of AI products and services.

Investors' concerns about the tech industry are growing, while on the other hand, tech companies are still stepping up their financing efforts globally to enhance their AI capabilities. Tencent's bond issuance plan is just one example of this. Last month, SoftBank Group raised funds equivalent to $11.1 billion (about 74.508 billion yuan at current exchange rates) to support its massive AI project, with the scale of the corporate junk bonds issued ranking among the largest in history.

AI There are constant warnings about potential risks and the need for safety constraints during the development process, which has led some to regard SoftBank's bond issuance as a touchstone to assess the attitude of bond investors towards AI financing.

A recent report by Goldman Sachs' credit strategists indicates that in 2026, the global bond issuance in the AI sector is expected to exceed $575 billion (equivalent to approximately 3.86 trillion yuan at current exchange rates). Concerns in the market remain: if the companies that invest the most cannot reap returns from AI technology, it could have an impact on the market.

Data shows that Tencent still owes approximately $22 billion in overseas bonds (which is about 147.674 billion yuan at current exchange rates). There are no bonds issued publicly this year that are due, but a dollar-denominated bond will mature in 2028.

To catch up with competitors such as ByteDance and Alibaba, Tencent has increased its investment in AI. In the quarter ending June, capital expenditures for AI projects and computing power increased by 176%, reaching 52.8 billion yuan.