Tencent Launches Hy Image 3.5 AI Model

Tencent Holdings launched the Hy Image 3.5 Preview image-generation AI model on September 22. The company is integrating the model into its Yuanbao chatbot and a suite of design and film-editing tools to strengthen its position against rivals ByteDance and Alibaba Group Holding.

Tencent claims the model's performance is equivalent to ByteDance's Seedream 5.0 Pro and slightly outperforms Alibaba's Qwen-Image-3.0 Pro and Google's Nano Banana Pro. This release marks a strategic pivot led by chief AI scientist Yao Shunyu, who shifted the company's focus toward real-world product integration and application rather than chasing leaderboard scores.

Following the announcement, Tencent shares in Hong Kong rose more than 7 per cent. Investors are currently weighing the company's ability to deploy personal AI assistants within the WeChat ecosystem against the agent-centric AI developments of Meta Platforms.