BEIJING, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Tencent ( TCTZF ) reported

second-quarter revenue growth of 15% on Wednesday, driven by

robust gaming performance and deployment of AI across services

and platforms including WeChat.

For the three months to June, the Chinese technology giant

reported revenue of 184.5 billion yuan ($25.7 billion),

exceeding analyst estimates of 178.5 billion yuan, according to

LSEG data.

Gaming remained a key growth driver, with domestic revenue

rising 17% to 40.4 billion yuan and international revenue

climbing 35% to 18.8 billion yuan.

The strong performance was fueled by flagship titles

including Honor of Kings and Dungeon & Fighter Mobile.

Marketing services revenue increased 20% year-on-year to

35.8 billion yuan, bolstered by the use of AI to enhance the

targeting of adverts.

Net profit for the quarter reached 55.6 billion yuan,

surpassing analyst expectations of 52.3 billion yuan, LSEG data

showed.

Tencent ( TCTZF ) has significantly ramped up its AI investments over

the past two years, with the company allocating increasingly

large portions of its capital expenditure to AI initiatives.

The company's total capital expenditure was 76.8 billion

yuan in 2024 and management has said that 2025 capital spending

would rise to the "low teens" as a percentage of total revenue.

Second-quarter capital expenditure more than doubled

year-to-year to 19.1 billion yuan, according to the earnings

release.

The company has developed its own large language model,

Hunyuan, launching the latest "Turbo S" version in February.

But Tencent ( TCTZF ) has also embraced third-party models, notably

integrating DeepSeek's technology across its platforms including

WeChat, which has over 1 billion monthly active users.

Its AI assistant Yuanbao became China's most-downloaded

iPhone app in early March after the DeepSeek integration,

overtaking DeepSeek's own application.

($1 = 7.1756 Chinese yuan renminbi)