<div id="readability-page-1">Ant International, the overseas spin-off of Chinese fintech giant Ant Group, has connected more than 150 million merchants with over 2 billion consumer accounts around the world, as it positions its payments network as core infrastructure for the emerging AI commerce economy. The figures, disclosed at the company’s MoMents 2026 forum in Kuala Lumpur, which ran from Monday to Wednesday, underscore the scale Ant is seeking to leverage amid the rising adoption of artificial intelligence agents. Ant International said its network supported more than 300 payment methods across 220 markets and processes over 20 million transactions a day on average, and it was seeking to broaden its market reach in Asia, Latin America and Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “New models of financial interoperability and AI commerce give us powerful tools to help global giants as well as mom-and-pop shops to increase resilience and expand revenue streams,” Ant International CEO Peng Yang said in a news release. At the event, the company unveiled its open-sourced Agentic Mobile Protocol, which is designed to enable AI agents to connect securely with digital wallets, banking apps and other mobile interfaces. The framework aims to move beyond traditional card-based systems towards a mobile- and AI-native payments layer. Ant Group rolled out a business-facing AI payment processing product through Alipay this week, allowing merchants – including small operators and “one-person companies” – to receive payments automatically when AI agents purchase their services. The tool is designed to support pay-per-use models and reduce the need for merchants to build their own payments infrastructure. In September, Alipay launched its consumer-facing AI Pay product, enabling transactions through AI-driven interfaces such as Alibaba Cloud’s Qwen app, Luckin Coffee’s virtual assistant and smart glasses from brands like Rokid. The company said the service surpassed 100 million users in February and processed more than 120 million transactions in one week that month. Alibaba Group Holding owns the South China Morning Post. The initiatives reflect a broader push to capture the transaction layer of AI commerce, as competition intensifies among technology and payments players including OpenAI, Stripe and Google, as well as card networks Visa and Mastercard.</div>

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<p>Ant International, a spin-off of Ant Group, connects over 150 million merchants with 2 billion consumers globally, focusing on AI commerce. At its MoMents 2026 forum, it highlighted its payment network's role in the AI economy, processing 20 million transactions daily across 220 markets. CEO Peng Yang emphasized new financial models for businesses. The company introduced the Agentic Mobile Protocol for secure AI agent connections and launched AI payment products via Alipay, enhancing transaction capabilities for small businesses. These initiatives aim to strengthen its position in the competitive AI commerce landscape.</p>

Ant International serves 150m merchants, 2b consumers, bets on AI commerce