Tencent raises USD 6 bln in bond offering, pledges investment of USD 70 bln into cloud, AI, cybersecurity

China’s Tencent has raised USD 6 billion through a number of bond offerings, Reuters reported, calling it the largest debt deal by an Asian corporate this year. The notes will be issued on 3 June. About USD 1 billion was raised with 5-year notes, nearly USD 2.3 billion with 10-year notes, USD 2 billion with 30-year notes and USD 750 million with 40-year notes. The 40-year term is a first for the company. 

The company has pledged to invest USD 70 billion into new infrastructure over the coming five years, Reuters noted, citing a statement to state media by company SVP Dowson Tong. The money will go into cloud computing, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, and namely in blockchain, servers, big data centres, supercomputer centres, IoT operating systems, 5G networks and quantum computing.