China's Video Game Firms Welcomed in Europe

An attendee uses a Microsoft Xbox One controller while playing a video game at the Paris Games Week, a trade fair for video games in Paris, France, October 29, 2019. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo
An attendee uses a Microsoft Xbox One controller while playing a video game at the Paris Games Week, a trade fair for video games in Paris, France, October 29, 2019. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo
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China's Video Game Firms Welcomed in Europe

An attendee uses a Microsoft Xbox One controller while playing a video game at the Paris Games Week, a trade fair for video games in Paris, France, October 29, 2019. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo
An attendee uses a Microsoft Xbox One controller while playing a video game at the Paris Games Week, a trade fair for video games in Paris, France, October 29, 2019. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo

China is investing billions in Europe's video game industry, but analysts have warned that there could be trouble along the road unless regulators start to take stricter notice.

Europe is embroiled in long-running disputes with Beijing over trade, environment, education, raw materials, intellectual property -- but so far video games are not part of the fight.

As Beijing tightens up on the video game industry at home, China's tech giants are looking to make investments overseas -- prompting concerns ranging from data security to limits on creative freedom.

"Europe has this idea that we will be able to separate strategic industries from non-strategic industries," Antonia Hmaidi from the Mercator Institute think-tank told AFP.

"Video games for most policymakers will always go into the non-strategic pile."

This has helped Tencent, the world's largest games company by revenue, to buy into studios across Europe –- including the then world-record $8.6 billion deal for Finnish firm Supercell in 2016.

Chinese rival NetEase made its biggest foray into foreign gaming studios in August, snaffling French firm Quantic Dream -- just days before Tencent upped its stake in Ubisoft, another French studio.

EU regulators only look at major investments with a pan-European dimension, and national regulators have shown no interest.

When Tencent bought British studio Sumo for $1.3 billion last year, the deal was scrutinized not by UK regulators but by their US counterparts.

Chinese firms are increasingly seeking profits abroad, analysts say, because of stifling restrictions in their home market.

Tencent recorded its first-ever quarterly loss in August on the back of a wide-ranging crackdown on the tech sector.

The Chinese government has identified video games as a potential threat not only to state power but also to the wellbeing of citizens.

Beijing introduced a nine-month ban on approval of new video games last year and now approves only a fraction of the number it once allowed on to the market.

Game makers have had to scrub "politically harmful" content, and the state has tightly restricted the time youngsters can spend gaming.

"Chinese companies in general are looking further afield given the climate of the domestic market," said Louise Shorthouse of Ampere analysis.

Several reports have suggested that Tencent is preparing to ramp up its overseas investments and could even begin to take control of smaller firms.

Tencent is essentially "sitting on a load of cash", said Kevin Shimota, a former marketing manager at the company and author of "The First Superapp".

"The Chinese market is cold right now so in terms of Tencent's global strategy you'd expect it to be more aggressive," he said.

But he stressed that the aim was unlikely to be direct takeovers or deeper control of foreign companies, rather Tencent might look at ways of developing games for audiences outside of China.



Trump Joins Tech and Energy Executives amid AI Push

A car drives past a building of the Digital Reality Data Center in Ashburn, Virginia, US, March 17, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo
A car drives past a building of the Digital Reality Data Center in Ashburn, Virginia, US, March 17, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo
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Trump Joins Tech and Energy Executives amid AI Push

A car drives past a building of the Digital Reality Data Center in Ashburn, Virginia, US, March 17, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo
A car drives past a building of the Digital Reality Data Center in Ashburn, Virginia, US, March 17, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo

President Donald Trump will join executives from some of the largest US tech and energy companies for a summit in Pittsburgh on Tuesday as the administration prepares fresh measures to power the US expansion of artificial intelligence.

Top economic rivals US and China are locked in a technological arms race over who can dominate AI as the technology takes on increasing importance everywhere from corporate boardrooms to the battlefield.

The Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University is expected to bring tech executives and officials from top energy and tech firms including Meta, Microsoft, Alphabet and Exxon Mobil to discuss how to position the US as a leader in AI. Trump will use the summit - put together by US Senator Dave McCormick, a Republican ally from Pennsylvania - to announce some $70 billion in artificial intelligence and energy investments in the state, Reuters reported.

Big Tech is scrambling to secure vast amounts of electricity supplies to power the energy-guzzling data centers needed for its rapid expansion of artificial intelligence. Companies began announcing their plans in early on Tuesday, with Google inking a $3 billion electricity deal and CoreWeave touting a $6 billion AI data center.

Google will invest $25 billion in regional data centers, while FirstEnergy will invest $15 billion in Pennsylvania's energy grid, Semafor reported. The CEOs expected to attend include Khaldoon Al-Mubarak of Mubadala, Rene Haas of Arm, Larry Fink of BlackRock, Darren Woods of ExxonMobil, Brendan Bechtel of Bechtel and Dario Amodei of Anthropic. The White House is considering executive actions in the coming weeks to make it easier for power-generating projects to connect to the grid and also provide federal land on which to build the data centers needed to expand AI technology, Reuters previously reported.

The administration is also weighing streamlining permitting for data centers by creating a nationwide Clean Water Act permit, rather than requiring companies to seek permits on a state-by-state basis.

Mike Sommers, head of the influential American Petroleum Institute, said executive action is welcomed to unlock the energy needed to power the data centers, but a more durable solution is needed.

"Real durable permitting reform requires an act of Congress, not just an executive order," Sommers said in an interview with Reuters. Trump ordered his administration in January to produce an AI Action Plan that would make "America the world capital in artificial intelligence" and reduce regulatory barriers to its rapid expansion.

That report, which includes input from the National Security Council, is due by July 23. The White House is considering making July 23 "AI Action Day" to draw attention to the report and demonstrate its commitment to expanding the industry, Reuters has reported.

US power demand is hitting record highs this year after nearly two decades of stagnation as AI and cloud computing data centers balloon in numbers and size across the country. The demand is also leading to unprecedented deals between the power industry and technology companies, including the attempted restart of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania between Constellation Energy and Microsoft.

The surge has led to concerns about power shortages that threaten to raise electricity bills and increase the risk of blackouts, while slowing Big Tech in its global race against countries like China to dominate artificial intelligence.