Trump administration reportedly considering pulling Tencent's gaming investments, potentially hurting Epic and Riot

It’s no secret that Tencent has stakes in, well, pretty much everything. It outright owns League of Legends and Valorant developer Riot Games, alongside other giants like Dune Awakening’s Funcom and Path of Exile’s Grinding Gear Games. It also has shares in some of the biggest companies out there, including the likes of Techland, Ubisoft, Remedy, Paradox, and even FromSoftware. It’s also a minority shareholder of Epic Games, (it owns 28%, and shares are fully diluted), and has apparently invested in Discord and Roblox. I really mean it when I say Tencent is everywhere. But that may be set to change, as, according to a new report, the Trump administration is considering whether or not the Chinese behemoth will be allowed to keep its stakes in several of these developers.

Headquartered in Shenzhen, China, but trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, Tencent’s American investments have allegedly come under scrutiny ahead of US President Donald Trump’s upcoming meeting with China’s Xi Jinping. Initially reported by the Financial Times, then followed up by Reuters, Tencent’s involvement with major gaming firms has supposedly been deemed a potential “national security risk.”

The Financial Times claims that a potential meeting to discuss the issue was set for Tuesday, March 3, but was “postponed due to scheduling issues.” Several cabinet officials were supposedly primed to attend.

The move comes amid rising tensions between the two countries. The US has threatened to ban video sharing service TikTok several times due to concerns over its Chinese ownership, for example, but the two countries eventually reached an agreement that sees TikTok’s US operations overtaken by tech firm Oracle. The deal closed on Thursday, January 22. China has since condemned the US and Israel’s military action in Iran, however, calling for a ceasefire.

Several Tencent-backed or owned companies have made headlines of late. At the tail end of January Ubisoft axed six projects – including the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake – and delayed seven more. Epic Games’ CEO, Tim Sweeney, has also taken several shots at rival storefront Steam and developer Valve, while openly supporting the controversial use of AI in game development.

PCGamesN has reached out to Tencent, Epic Games, and The White House to confirm these claims. If we receive a response, we’ll be sure to update this story.