Chinese tech giant Tencent jumps onto the list of the world’s 10 most valuable companies as Meta slides on stock rout

• Tencent is the world’s tenth most valuable company as of Thursday.
• The company’s rise comes as Meta’s stock slide saw it fall out of the top ten list.
• It’s the only company from mainland China on the list which is otherwise dominated by Silicon Valley.

Shenzhen-headquartered tech giant Tencent now ranks among the world’s ten most valuable companies by market value with a valuation of $589.8 billion. 

It’s the only company from mainland China on the list; the only other Asian company in the top ten is chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), worth $600.3 billion. 

Tencent’s ascent comes as Silicon Valley’s Meta, the parent company of Facebook, saw an extended stock slide on Thursday. It’s now the world’s 11th most valuable company with a $565 billion valuation.

Founded in 1998, Tencent was initially focused on its free desktop instant messaging service, but has since grown to offer mobile instant messaging, payments, video, gaming, and advertising services. It introduced its WeChat platform in 2011, and that now has 1.26 billion users, according to the company’s third-quarter earnings results.

After listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in June 2004, Tencent entered the top ten for the first time in April 2017 by kicking Wells Fargo off the chart. Its market value was $279 billion then.

Tencent’s valuation neared $1 trillion in early 2021. But after Beijing cracked down on homegrown tech giants last year, the company’s share price slid. It most recently exited the top 10 list of most valuable companies globally in December, together with Alibaba, leaving no Chinese representation on that list, Nikkei reported. 

Tencent’s co-founder Pony Ma’s wealth has also ebbed and flowed with the company’s fortunes. His net worth was estimated to have peaked at $75.1 billion in January 2021, according to Bloomberg, before the crackdown. Bloomberg estimates his wealth to now be at $48.9 billion as of Thursday.

Got a tip about Tencent or any other technology firm in Asia? Contact the reporter, Weilun Soon, at wsoon@insider.com.