Tencent Holdings saw its Hong Kong-listed shares gain ground on Tuesday after the company disclosed plans to convert certain artificial intelligence models from free testing to fee-based commercial offerings. The stock climbed as much as 4.4% to HK$468.80 by 04:48 GMT, outpacing the Hang Seng Index.
The company said its Tencent Cloud platform will commercialize the Hy3 Preview and DeepSeek-V4-Pro models from May 27. Both models are currently available in a limited-time free beta on the firm's intelligent agent development platform, the company said.
When the commercial rollout begins, Tencent said the models will switch to usage-based pricing tied to model invocation volumes. That pricing approach links customer charges directly to the number of model calls made, according to the company's announcement.
Investors have been attentive to how major Chinese technology firms transform substantial artificial intelligence investments into revenue-producing services, and Tencent's move represents a clear step toward monetization of generative AI capabilities.
Tencent has been intensifying its artificial intelligence efforts across multiple areas of its business. The company said it is accelerating development and deployment across cloud computing, advertising, and enterprise applications. In doing so, it competes with domestic rivals named by the company as Alibaba Group and Baidu in China’s expanding AI market.
The shift from a free beta to a paid, usage-based commercial model for Hy3 Preview and DeepSeek-V4-Pro highlights a broader trend among technology firms seeking to convert AI prototypes into commercial offerings. Tencent’s statement emphasized the timing and the pricing mechanism, but did not provide additional financial projections tied to the change.
Market reaction to the announcement was immediate, with Tencent’s shares outperforming the broader market benchmark on Tuesday morning trading. The company’s move to monetize select AI models will be watched by investors and industry participants interested in revenue outcomes for large-scale AI investments.
Sectors potentially affected: cloud computing, digital advertising, enterprise software and AI services.