Goldman Sachs summarized the remarks made by Tencent's Chief Strategy Officer, James Mitchell, at the Goldman Sachs Asia Leaders Conference on September 1st:
1. Tencent continues to prioritize AI in its capital investment. Capital expenditures and prepayments will remain high in Q3, but may gradually decline in the coming quarters.
2. Tencent believes that AI competition is no longer simply about "the bigger the model, the better." Data processing, post-training, real user feedback, and the joint optimization of models, infrastructure, and chips are becoming increasingly important.
3. WorkBuddy and WeChat AI Agent are attempting to truly integrate AI into work and user scenarios. Tencent believes that costs can decrease as scale increases and remains optimistic about the return on investment.
4. AI is also beginning to impact Tencent's existing profitable businesses. Management believes that AI can improve advertising efficiency and game profit margins, among other things.
Overall, Goldman Sachs maintains its "Buy" rating on Tencent with a 12-month target price of HK$670 (consistent with the target price lowered on August 12th). However, Goldman Sachs also cautions that excessive AI investment, lower-than-expected AI commercialization, advertising competition, and delays in game approvals are all risks that Tencent may face. (The above views are from a Goldman Sachs report dated September 1st.)
