Tencent and Visa ink deal to power cross-border payments

Tencent and Visa have inked deal to explore broader collaboration aimed at enhancing global payment and digital commerce experiences across Tencent's ecosystem.

The partnership establishes a comprehensive framework spanning cross-border money movement, agentic commerce, enterprise AI, and global business expansion. It combines Tencent's digital platforms, payment solutions, and cloud capabilities with Visa's global payment network and cross-border infrastructure.

Building on their existing initiatives for international travellers in China, the two companies will streamline cross-border payments for inbound and outbound tourists through TenPay Global and Visa Pay.

The initiative will enable payments across participating merchants on both the Weixin Pay and Visa networks, subject to local regulatory standards. Additionally, the duo plans to deepen remittance integration via Visa Direct, allowing overseas senders to transfer funds directly into the Weixin Pay ecosystem.

On the technology front, Tencent and Visa will explore how emerging AI and agentic tools—including Visa Intelligent Commerce—can drive secure, consumer-controlled commerce models.

The collaboration will cover AI-native payment experiences, developer-agent integrations, and risk management. This builds on an existing gaming partnership between Tencent's international payment platform Midas and Visa, which is now expanding to support Tencent's overseas AI businesses.

“Our expanded partnership with Visa builds on our ongoing efforts to better serve users and businesses across Tencent’s ecosystem. By making cross-border payments more convenient and exploring how Tencent Cloud’s AI and agent capabilities can complement Visa’s global network and expertise, we hope to create more seamless commerce experiences for consumers and new opportunities for businesses, both in China and internationally,” said Dowson Tong, senior executive vice president of Tencent and CEO of its Cloud and Smart Industries Group.

"As two-way travel and commerce between China and the rest of the world continue to grow, we are pleased to build on our existing partnership with Visa to deepen cross-border payment connectivity and explore new possibilities in AI-powered agentic payments. " said Forest Lin, corporate vice president of Tencent and head of Tencent Financial Technology.

"The next chapter of commerce will be shaped by increasingly connected digital ecosystems and new AI-powered experiences. Our partnership with Tencent gives us an opportunity to help connect those experiences to Visa’s global network, opening more ways for consumers to pay and businesses to participate in global commerce, with trust and consumer control at the heart of how we innovate,” said Elaine Chang, group general manager, Greater China, Visa.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Tencent for more information.

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