Asia Express
Tencent Acquires 5% Stake in Telsa for Approx. USD1.8 Billion
March 29, 2017
Following its investment in Chinese ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing, Chinese Tencent recently acquired 5% stake in Telsa for USD1.778 billion, reported China Business News on March 29, making the company's major step into the connected car. Upon the completion of acquisition, Tencent will become the fifth largest market shareholder of Telsa, according to the same source. The acquisition is reportedly to help Telsa boost its market share in China. In 2016, over 15% or USD1 billion of Telsa's revenues were coming from China, up from USD318.5 million in 2015. Over the years, aside from connected cars and AI, Tencent has been aggressive in game and electric vehicle deployments through several M&As such as League of Legends-maker Riot Games, Calsh of Clans-maker Supercell, and electric car developer NextEV, other than Didi Chuxing.