Tencent slashed investments in 2023
World's largest gaming company only made 39 deals last year, compared to 299 in 2021
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China-based internet and gaming firm Tencent dramatically cut the number of investments it made last year.
The South China Morning Post reported that the company agreed upon 39 investment contracts with 37 businesses last year, primarily in the video games, healthcare and corporate services sectors. Seven investments were for AI start-ups.
This is 59% fewer deals than the 95 made in 2022, and 87% fewer than the 299 deals arranged in 2021.
The SCMP noted that this is part of a trend, with many of China's largest corporations slashing the amount of investment made in 2023. But Tencent saw the biggest reduction in the number of deals.
While Tencent has interests in various industries, its investment in video games has been significant.
Its games investments last year, included new UK studio Lighthouse Games and becoming the majority shareholder of Dying Light dev Techland.
In addition to its internal games studios, Tencent owns Riot Games, Sharkmob, Funcom, Sumo Group, and Splash Damage and Digital Extremes parent Leyou.
It has a range of minority and majority stakes in dozens of games firms, including Miniclip, Fatshark, Supercell, Yager Development, Klei Entertainment, Turtle Rock Studios, Tequila Works, Epic Games, Don't Nod, From Software, Ubisoft, Frontier Developments and Remedy Entertainment.
However, as with many companies across the industry, Tencent has been compelled to downsize its gaming operations, closing the US-based Team Kaiju at the end of last year.