I'm LongbridgeAI, I can summarize articles.Tencent Holdings is expanding its cloud-computing presence in Europe by opening new data centres in Germany, responding to the rising demand for AI services. The company will launch a new availability zone in Frankfurt in Q2, adding to its existing centres. This expansion aims to cater to European developers' needs for Tencent's AI capabilities, particularly in 3D model creation. Tencent's move follows its recent data centre openings in Saudi Arabia and comes amid fierce competition in the cloud market, both domestically and internationally.
Tencent Holdings plans to expand its cloud-computing presence in Europe with new data centres in Germany, as the Chinese tech giant rides on the rising demand for artificial intelligence services globally. The Shenzhen-based company will open a new availability zone – a cluster of physically independent data centres – in the second quarter this year in Frankfurt, adding to the existing two in Germany, Tencent’s cloud-computing unit announced on Monday at MWC Barcelona. The move aimed to meet the region’s growing appetite for Tencent’s AI capabilities, especially its HY 3D model-creation engines among European developers, according to the company. “We are seeing strong momentum across the region, from companies adopting advanced 3D AI solutions to fintech platforms handling mission-critical workloads,” said Fred Sun, general manager of Tencent Cloud Europe, in a statement. Some of the demand came from key regional clients, including Germany’s 3D AI Studio, a creation platform, and the country’s software developer Maxon. Both are leveraging Tencent Cloud’s 3D generation systems, powered by the company’s HY model family, which is known as Hunyuan in China. The expanded cloud infrastructure in Germany follows Tencent’s new data centres in Saudi Arabia last year, as the company continues to ramp up its global footprint. Tencent’s overseas expansion comes amid intensifying competition in the domestic market as Chinese tech giants ramp up AI model releases to meet industry needs. The cloud infrastructure market in mainland China is led by Alibaba Cloud with a 36 per cent share in the third quarter last year, ahead of Huawei Cloud’s 16 per cent and Tencent Cloud’s 9 per cent, according to the latest data by the tech consultancy Omdia. Alibaba Cloud is the cloud computing unit of Alibaba Group Holding, which owns the South China Morning Post. Outside its home market, Tencent faces direct competition from US hyperscalers, which dominate the global cloud market, as well as its Chinese counterparts expanding overseas aggressively. Amazon, Microsoft and Google accounted for two-thirds of all cloud spending worldwide in the third quarter of 2025, at 32 per cent, 22 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively, according to Omdia data.