Tencent hands software dominance to AI as algorithms write half of all new code

The era of the "human-first" codebase is effectively over at China’s most valuable company. Tencent confirmed in its latest R&D report that over 50% of its new code is now generated by AI, a staggering leap that signals a fundamental shift in how the world’s largest tech giants define productivity.

This isn't a pilot program. It is the new operational reality for the WeChat and gaming behemoth. According to data released in the 2025 Tencent R&D Big Data Report, the company's proprietary coding assistant, CodeBuddy, has permeated the workflow of 90% of Tencent’s engineering workforce. The implication is stark: the "app factory" that built the Chinese internet is no longer relying solely on human architects to lay the bricks. They are simply checking the blueprints while the machines pour the cement.

The Efficiency Brutalism

The numbers released by Tencent paint a picture of aggressive optimization. Just a year ago, in 2024, AI-generated code accounted for roughly 35% of the company's output. Crossing the 50% threshold represents a technical tipping point.

The driver behind this surge is CodeBuddy, a tool powered by Tencent's massive Hunyuan foundation model. Management data confirms the tool cuts coding time by 40%, allowing products to move from concept to deployment at speeds previously deemed impossible.

For shareholders, this is pure gold. For the average junior developer, it is an existential threat.

"AI is not merely a supplemental tool but is actively involved in core tasks such as coding, code review, and testing," states the official Tencent report. The report further notes that AI now acts as an "AI quality inspector" for 94% of code reviews, identifying 28% of defects before a human ever looks at the screen.

The "Plain Words" Revolution

What makes CodeBuddy distinct from early iterations of GitHub Copilot is its scale. The tool is handling 325 million lines of code monthly and completing over 370,000 development requests, according to figures cited by Tiger Brokers.

This capability is critical for Tencent's gaming division. In an industry where crunch time is notorious, boosting productivity by over 20% translates directly to faster release cycles for cash cows like Honor of Kings. The tool allows senior architects to generate functional boilerplate from plain text prompts, effectively decoupling revenue growth from the need to hire thousands of new entry-level coders.

The Money Angle

The market is watching closely because Tencent is proving that AI can deliver hard ROI.

Investors have been skittish about the high capital expenditure required for AI hardware. However, Tencent’s recent financial analysis shows that this investment is stabilizing margins. By proving that their AI investment is literally writing half their product, Tencent provides the efficiency narrative that Wall Street has been desperate to see.

With 76% of Tencent's workforce now categorized as R&D staff, the ability to amplify their output by 50% without increasing headcount is a massive competitive moat. As the Dev Community noted in a recent analysis, "Tencent’s embrace of AI in coding... is about redefining how humans and machines collaborate to innovate at scale."

At Tencent, that collaboration has already tipped in favor of the machines.