Tencent and Visa formalized a Memorandum of Understanding that establishes a broad framework for joint work on cross-border payments, agentic commerce, enterprise artificial intelligence, and assistance for businesses expanding internationally.
The arrangement pairs Tencent’s payment tools, digital platforms, and technology resources with Visa’s worldwide network and cross-border fund-transfer capabilities, with the stated aim of improving payment and commerce experiences throughout Tencent’s ecosystem.
The agreement builds on prior cooperation focused on international visitors to China.
Under the new framework, the companies intend to simplify cross-border transactions for travelers moving both into and out of the country by leveraging Tencent’s TenPay Global platform alongside Visa Pay.
Planned work includes the development of options that would allow such travelers to complete payments at participating merchants operating on the Weixin Pay and Visa networks, provided the solutions comply with applicable regulatory requirements.
Separately, the parties plan to expand their remittance collaboration through Visa Direct so that a larger number of overseas senders can move funds more readily into the Weixin Pay ecosystem.
Beyond conventional payments, the MoU contemplates the use of emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and agentic systems, to create smoother and more secure digital commerce experiences.
Any such efforts are to preserve trust, security, and consumer control while remaining subject to relevant regulatory, data-governance, and security rules.
In parallel, Tencent’s international payments platform Midas and Visa will extend a long-standing relationship that originated in the gaming sector.
That earlier work has covered joint marketing, global payment and money-movement services, and risk management; the collaboration is now being widened to Tencent’s overseas AI businesses, with the dual objectives of refining payment experiences in AI contexts and examining agentic payment opportunities.
A further focus of the memorandum is next-generation agentic payments.
The companies will explore how Visa Intelligent Commerce might enable secure, consumer-controlled scenarios in which AI agents assist eligible users in discovering, selecting, and purchasing goods or services.
Related areas of potential cooperation include payment experiences involving developer agents and other emerging models of AI-native commerce.
Dowson Tong, Senior Executive Vice President of Tencent and CEO of its Cloud and Smart Industries Group, noted that the expanded partnership continues Tencent’s efforts to serve users and businesses within its ecosystem.
He expressed the hope that greater convenience in cross-border payments, combined with the integration of Tencent Cloud’s AI and agent capabilities alongside Visa’s network and expertise, would produce more fluid commerce experiences for consumers and additional opportunities for businesses in China and elsewhere.
Forest Lin, Corporate Vice President of Tencent and Head of Tencent Financial Technology, observed that rising two-way travel and commerce between China and other markets make the deepening of cross-border payment connectivity and the exploration of AI-powered agentic payments especially timely.
Elaine Chang, Group General Manager, Greater China, at Visa, stated that the next phase of commerce will be defined by more interconnected digital ecosystems and AI-driven experiences, and that the partnership with Tencent offers a route to link those experiences to Visa’s global network, thereby expanding payment options for consumers and enabling broader business participation in global commerce while keeping trust and consumer control central.
The memorandum outlines intended areas of exploration rather than binding commercial commitments or deployment timelines. Its scope reflects the continuing growth of travel and commercial flows involving China as well as the accelerating interest in agentic systems that can act on behalf of users under defined permissions and safeguards.
