Emerging Markets Tech News to Know: August 2026

EMQQ Global Performance Overview 

• The EMQQ Index declined 1.3% in August. YTD, the index is down 16.1%.

• The FMQQ Index gained 3.4% for the month. YTD, it has declined 6.0%.

• The INQQ Index increased 4.7% in August. YTD, it is down 4.9%.

The leading positive contributors to performance for the EMQQ Index in August came from Sea Limited and Kaspi, rising 6.3% and 18.4%, respectively. The largest detractors for the month were Meituan, China’s quick-commerce and food-delivery leader, and JD.com, declining 14.7%. and 11.7%, respectively.

Sources: Bloomberg, Company financials 

Emerging Markets Tech News to Know

At a Glance:

• MercadoLibre Revenue Reaches Record $10 Billion

• Alibaba’s AI Cloud Growth Accelerates
• Nubank Quarterly Profit Tops $1 Billion for the First Time
• Tencent Sees AI Drive Advertising and Cloud Growth
• Sea’s Shopee Maintains Strong E-Commerce Momentum
  

• Chart of the Month  

MercadoLibre Revenue Reaches Record $10 Billion

MercadoLibre continued to deliver rapid growth across both e-commerce and fintech during the second quarter. Revenue increased 50% year over year to a record $10.2 billion, its fastest growth rate in four years, while gross merchandise volume expanded 36% on a currency-neutral basis. Importantly, the number of customers actively using both MercadoLibre’s commerce platform and Mercado Pago grew 37%, reinforcing the benefits of combining e-commerce and fintech within a single ecosystem. Mercado Pago’s credit portfolio reached approximately $16 billion, up 75% year over year, while payment volume increased 42%. The continued growth of customers using multiple MercadoLibre services can deepen engagement and create additional opportunities for the company to monetize its large consumer and merchant base across Latin America.

Alibaba’s AI Cloud Growth Accelerates

Alibaba’s investment in artificial intelligence is translating into increasingly meaningful revenue growth. During the recent June quarter, revenue from the company’s AI cloud and computing services rose 45% year over year to roughly $7.2 billion, helping drive a 9% increase in overall company revenue. Alibaba’s AI model-as-a-service business has also surpassed approximately $2.4 billion in annual recurring revenue, highlighting growing commercialization of its Qwen AI model ecosystem. At the infrastructure level, Alibaba is increasingly deploying chips developed by its T-Head semiconductor unit in large AI supernodes used for model training and inference. Management believes greater use of internally developed chips can reduce its reliance on externally sourced hardware while improving the economics of its rapidly expanding AI infrastructure business.

Nubank Quarterly Profit Tops $1 Billion for the First Time

Nubank reached another milestone during the second quarter as quarterly net income exceeded $1 billion for the first time. Net profit increased 49% year over year on a currency-neutral basis to $1.1 billion, while revenue climbed 39% to $5.8 billion, ahead of analyst expectations. The digital bank now serves nearly 139 million customers across Brazil, Mexico and Colombia. At the same time, Nubank’s credit portfolio expanded 37% to $39 billion. The results highlight the operating leverage available to digital financial platforms as Nubank continues adding customers, expanding credit products and increasing monetization across its rapidly growing Latin American user  base.

Tencent Sees AI Drive Advertising and Cloud Growth

Tencent is also beginning to see tangible benefits from artificial intelligence across several of its largest businesses. Second-quarter revenue increased 11% year over year to approximately $30.4 billion, while marketing-services revenue jumped 22%, supported by AI improvements to advertising targeting and pricing across the Weixin ecosystem. Fintech and business-services revenue grew 9%, with demand for AI-related cloud services remaining an important contributor. Tencent also introduced its Hy4 Preview AI model in August, a new open-weight model designed for software engineering, research and financial-analysis tasks. Tencent plans to integrate it into products including CodeBuddy and WorkBuddy, broadening AI adoption across its consumer and enterprise ecosystem.

Sea’s Shopee Maintains Strong E-Commerce Momentum

Sea delivered strong growth during the second quarter, led by continued strength at its Shopee e-commerce platform. Shopee’s gross merchandise value increased 28% year over year to $38.3 billion, while revenue rose 48% to $5.6 billion. Notably, Shopee’s core marketplace business, which includes transaction fees and advertising, grew nearly 66% to $4.3 billion, significantly outpacing merchandise volume and highlighting continued improvement in monetization. Sea’s digital financial services platform, Monee, also maintained strong momentum, with revenue increasing 59% to $1.4 billion, reflecting continued growth across the company’s broader consumer internet ecosystem. Sea is also expanding its use of AI across Shopee, including AI-powered advertising and seller tools, while developing new AI-enabled e-commerce experiences designed to improve engagement for both users and sellers.

Chart of the Month

Alibaba Cloud’s growth has accelerated sharply over the past two years, highlighting the growing importance of cloud computing and artificial intelligence to the company’s broader business. The acceleration suggests rising demand for computing infrastructure and AI-related services is translating into increasingly meaningful revenue growth. As AI workloads continue to expand, Alibaba Cloud could become a larger contributor to the company’s overall growth and earnings.

Source: Bloomberg, Alibaba Earnings Release