Tencent announced on Thursday that it has launched its biggest ever hiring initiative, announcing plans to add 28,000 internship positions over the next three years, with a strong focus on AI and technical roles. In 2025 alone, the company will recruit 10,000 student interns, 60% of which will be in tech-focused positions, including AI models, R&D, algorithms, and digital content, according to the company. Tencent is ramping up recruitment in areas such as cloud computing, big data, and game engines, as competition for top AI talent intensifies across China’s tech industry.
As of early March, Tencent had over 55,000 full-time employees, with more than 40,000 – or 73% – in tech-related roles. Of those, over 27,000 are directly involved in R&D, accounting for nearly half of the company’s total workforce.
The move marks a shift from 2024, when campus hiring slowed and intern-to-full-time conversion varied widely by team. Tencent previously ran a major recruitment drive in 2020, hiring 5,000 graduates. The Chinese tech giant ended 2023 with over 110,000 employees and an average annual compensation of RMB 1.02 million ($141,000). Recent filings show the company granted over HKD 8.7 billion ($1.1 billion) in equity awards to employees in March this year.
Rivals such as Alibaba are also doubling down on AI recruitment, with 80% of the Taobao owner’s 2026 campus roles focused on AI. [Tencent, in Chinese]
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