The Trump administration is debating whether to force Chinese gaming giant Tencent to divest its stakes in video game companies.
That’s according to a new report by The FT (paywalled), which claims that US officials have held meetings to decide whether Tencent’s investments in US gaming firms pose a security risk.
Tencent, the world’s largest games company, has invested in more than 800 developers worldwide. That includes stakes in Epic Games, Larian, and Krafton, as well as shares in Ubisoft and many others. It also owns Riot Games and Supercell.
According to The FT, cabinet officials planned to discuss the matter this week but postponed the meeting due to scheduling issues. President Donald is due to meet his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, next month.
According to one source, last summer Tencent was even “negotiating measures with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US to mitigate Washington’s security concerns”.
If it decided to act, the US government could force Tencent to divest its stakes in US gaming companies.
Tencent’s investment in gaming firms has long been questioned by the US as a potential security risk, due to the amount of data the companies collect on US players.
“These platforms could serve as a significant intelligence collection source,” said Chris McGuire, a former official in Joe Biden’s administration who dealt with security issues.
Last January, the United States government added Tencent to a ‘blacklist’ of companies it said it believes are linked to the Chinese military. At the time, Tencent said it believed its inclusion on the list of Chinese Military Companies (CMC) was a “mistake.”
“We are not a military company or supplier,” Tencent spokesperson Danny Marti said in a statement. “Unlike sanctions or export controls, this listing has no impact on our business. We will nonetheless work with the Department of Defense to address any misunderstanding.”
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