Trump Administration Debates Tencent's US Gaming Stakes Ahead of Xi Meeting

According to the Financial Times, top White House officials are debating whether to allow Tencent Holdings to retain stakes in major video-game groups as U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in China in April. The FT report, carried across wire services on March 3, says the discussions focus on national security and data-protection concerns tied to Tencent’s investments in U.S. and Finnish game firms.

The FT account cited by Reuters said “top officials have held internal meetings to assess whether Tencent’s investments in U.S. and Finnish gaming firms pose a national security risk.” The Financial Times also reported that “a meeting among several cabinet officials scheduled for Tuesday to review the issue was postponed due to scheduling issues,” signaling the matter had reached senior interagency levels but remained unresolved as of the initial reporting.

Tencent’s footprint in global gaming is concrete: the company owns Los Angeles-based Riot Games, holds a stake in Epic Games, creator of Fortnite, and in 2016 bought a majority stake in Supercell, the Finnish studio behind Clash of Clans, for about $8.6 billion. The South China Morning Post added a specific ownership detail, reporting that Tencent “has a 40 per cent stake in Epic,” a figure not included in the FT summary but cited by SCMP’s sources.

The national-security thread includes procedural action by U.S. review bodies. The SCMP reported that “the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), which is chaired by the Treasury Department, has sent letters to companies, including Epic Games, Riot Games and others, to inquire about their security protocols in handling Americans’ personal data.” The SCMP also said “the Trump administration has asked gaming companies to provide information about their data-security protocols involving Chinese technology giant Tencent Holdings,” language that frames the review around user data handling.

Markets registered a reaction. SCMP reported Tencent’s American Depositary Receipts fell 2.4 per cent to US$66.66 after the report. A MarketScreener snapshot published on March 3 showed Tencent at 500.50 HKD, down 1.96% intraday, with a five-day change of -4.31% and year-to-date change of -16.53% as of 10:45:09 pm EST on March 3, 2026.

Several outlets noted limited official comment as of March 3. Reuters said it “could not immediately verify the report. The White House and Tencent also did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.” The SCMP said the Treasury Department “declined to comment,” and reported that company representatives for Epic and Riot “declined to comment or didn’t immediately respond.”

With President Trump scheduled to meet Xi in April, the dispute over Tencent’s gaming stakes remains both a policy question and a diplomatic variable. The FT-sourced debate, the CFIUS letters reported by SCMP, and the market moves on March 3 together leave a narrow window for White House officials to resolve whether Tencent can keep its holdings ahead of the high-profile meeting.