Tencent expands European cloud-computing presence with data centres in Germany

Tencent Holdings plans to expand its cloud-computing presence in Europe with new data centres in Germany, as the Chinese tech giant rides on the rising demand for artificial intelligence services globally.

The Shenzhen-based company will open a new availability zone – a cluster of physically independent data centres – in the second quarter this year in Frankfurt, adding to the existing two in Germany, Tencent’s cloud-computing unit announced on Monday at MWC Barcelona.

The move aimed to meet the region’s growing appetite for Tencent’s AI capabilities, especially its HY 3D model-creation engines among European developers, according to the company.

“We are seeing strong momentum across the region, from companies adopting advanced 3D AI solutions to fintech platforms handling mission-critical workloads,” said Fred Sun, general manager of Tencent Cloud Europe, in a statement.

Some of the demand came from key regional clients, including Germany’s 3D AI Studio, a creation platform, and the country’s software developer Maxon. Both are leveraging Tencent Cloud’s 3D generation systems, powered by the company’s HY model family, which is known as Hunyuan in China.