Shares of Tencent Holdings surged 10 per cent on Tuesday, driven by investor optimism over reports that the Chinese tech giant is close to launching an artificial intelligence agent within its super app WeChat.

Tencent was testing a prototype AI agent for the WeChat ecosystem, which boasts 1.4 billion active users, and planned to start the compliance process as soon as this month for a public launch, according to a report by the Financial Times on Tuesday, citing anonymous sources.

The company would test the agent on a small group of external users after the compliance procedure, and a public launch date was not yet confirmed, the report said. Tencent declined to comment on the report.

The expected launch gave a much-needed lift to Tencent’s stock, which has shed over 20 per cent of its value since the start of 2026. The stock rose 10.5 per cent to HK$481.60 on Tuesday.

The Shenzhen-based company has been under scrutiny over its AI efforts relative to domestic peers, including Alibaba Group Holding and ByteDance. Last month, Tencent co-founder and CEO Pony Ma Huateng offered a candid assessment of the firm’s AI progress: “A year ago we thought we were on the boat, then we found it was leaking.”

The company has been reshuffling its organisation to sharpen its AI focus. In April, it launched Hy3 preview, its first flagship model since former OpenAI researcher Yao Shunyu joined the Shenzhen-based tech giant to lead its foundational AI development efforts.