Tencent Holdings has reorganized its artificial intelligence operations and promoted recent hire Vinces Yao Shunyu, a former OpenAI researcher, to lead expanded AI infrastructure efforts. The Shenzhen-based company named Yao as Chief AI Scientist under the CEO’s office, reporting directly to President Martin Lau Chi-ping, while also placing him in charge of large language model development and AI infrastructure within the Technology Engineering Group (TEG).
As part of the restructuring, TEG created two new departments: AI Infra and Data Computing Platform. According to an internal announcement, the AI Infra unit is responsible for “developing the technical capabilities of large-model training and inference platforms,” while the Data Computing Platform team will “establish comprehensive full-stack service capabilities” for large-scale data and machine learning. Tencent also renamed its existing data platform as AI Data and dissolved the Machine Learning Platform department, redistributing staff across the new teams.
The reorganization reflects rising competition in China’s AI sector, as rivals adjust their cloud and model strategies. At a recent earnings call, Lau said Tencent was “hiring more top-notch AI researchers to help improve its Hunyuan model family.” Yao, a graduate of Princeton University and Tsinghua University, previously contributed to OpenAI’s early AI agent projects and has supported Tencent’s recruitment of AI talent from peers such as ByteDance and Alibaba. In 2025, Tencent released more than 30 AI models as open source, including 3D generation tools and systems designed to simulate physical environments, signaling a continued push to strengthen its AI capabilities.