May. 27, 2018 –
In light of the recent sanctions against ZTE, Tencent has pledged to work to build China's own chip and semi-conductor industry. Reuters reports that Tencent's leadership called the recent actions against ZTE a "wake-up" call and said that Chinese firms should not have to rely solely upon foreign suppliers.
"The recent ZTE incident made everyone more clearly realize that however advanced one may be in mobile payment, without the mobile, the chips and the operating system, you still cannot compete," said Tencent's Pony Ma.
Tencent, a Chinese gaming and social media company, is one of Asia's most valuable firms, and it operates the popular WeChat app. Tencent's efforts could include using the data collected from WeChat to help Chinese chip makers come up with better chips or encourage WeChat app developers to use chips made in China when developing their software. Ma said that he would like for Tencent to get involved with making chips itself, but admitted that was a bit outside the company's area of expertise.
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