EMQQ Global Performance Overview
The leading positive contributors to performance for the EMQQ Index in May came from Delivery Hero, the food delivery platform with a presence across Asia/MENA, and Southeast Asia’s Sea Limited, rising 79.6% and 6.7%, respectively. The former received a boost as Uber Technologies raised its stake in the food-delivery giant. The two largest detractors for the month were China’s PDD Holdings and India’s Reliance Industries, falling 15.5% and 7.8% respectively.
Sources: Bloomberg, Company financials
At a Glance:
Tencent Quarterly Growth Boosted By AI
Chart of the Month
Tencent Quarterly Growth Boosted By AI
Tencent delivered another strong set of quarterly results, highlighting the growing impact of AI across its ecosystem. Revenue rose 9% year-over-year to $28.3 billion, while online advertising revenue surged 20%, driven by improved AI-powered ad targeting and recommendation algorithms. Cloud and business services revenue benefited from rising demand for AI-related services in both domestic and international markets. Tencent's evergreen gaming franchises, including Honour of Kings, Peacekeeper Elite, and Delta Force, continued to perform well, with several titles reaching record quarterly gross receipts. The company is also accelerating AI investments, positioning WeChat, cloud, advertising, and gaming businesses for future growth.
Alibaba’s AI Strategy Shifts to Commercialization
Alibaba is signaling a new phase in its AI strategy as the company shifts its focus from heavy investment toward commercialization and real-world adoption. Management highlighted strong demand for its AI models and cloud services, with enterprises increasingly deploying AI to improve productivity, automate workflows, and enhance customer engagement. Alibaba’s Qwen family of large language models continues to gain traction among developers and businesses, helping expand the company’s AI ecosystem. The company believes AI will become a major driver of cloud growth over the coming years, creating new revenue opportunities across software, infrastructure, and digital services. Alibaba’s expanding AI platform positions it to benefit from the accelerating adoption of artificial intelligence across China and global markets.
Mercadolibre Quarterly Revenue Growth Nears 50%
Mercadolibre delivered an exceptional start to 2026, showcasing the strength of its e-commerce and fintech ecosystem across Latin America. Net revenue and financial income surged 49% year-over-year to $8.8 billion, marking the company’s fastest growth rate in nearly four years. Commerce momentum remained strong, with gross merchandise volume rising 42%, while unique buyer growth in Brazil accelerated to its fastest pace in five years. Mercado Pago continued to scale rapidly, with monthly active users increasing 29% to 83 million, assets under management rising 77%, and its credit portfolio expanding 87% to $14.6 billion. Mercado Ads was another standout, growing 73% year-over-year as brands increasingly leverage Mercadolibre’s platform to reach consumers across the region.
Tencent to Bring AI Agents to 1.4 billion WeChat Users
Tencent is reportedly preparing to launch an AI agent within WeChat, potentially bringing advanced AI capabilities to one of the world’s largest digital ecosystems. The integration could allow users to access AI-powered search, content creation, productivity tools, and personalized services directly inside the super app. WeChat has more than 1.4 billion monthly active users and serves as an essential platform for messaging, payments, commerce, entertainment, and daily services across China. This massive user base provides Tencent with a distribution advantage that few global AI platforms can match. The move highlights Tencent’s accelerating AI strategy following strong momentum in its cloud, advertising, and gaming businesses, as cited above. By embedding AI across everyday user interactions, Tencent is positioning itself to deepen user engagement, enhance monetization opportunities, and strengthen its long-term competitive advantage while accelerating AI adoption at unprecedented scale.
Nubank Continues to Scale Across Latam
Nubank delivered another impressive quarter in May, highlighting the strength and scalability of its digital banking platform across Latin America. Revenue rose 58% and surpassed $5 billion for the first time, while net income climbed to $871 million (up 57%). Return on equity remained a robust 29%. The company added approximately 4 million customers during the quarter, bringing its global customer base to more than 135 million. Growth was particularly strong in Mexico, where Nubank reached 15 million customers, achieved break-even profitability, and became the country’s third-largest financial institution. Management also emphasized the growing impact of AI, with its proprietary NuFormer models enhancing credit underwriting and customer engagement. Strong customer growth, rising monetization, expanding profitability, and successful international expansion continue to support Nubank’s long-term growth story.
As highlighted above, Mercadolibre saw its revenue surge 49% in its most recent quarter. That marked the 29th consecutive quarter that the company reported 30%+ revenue growth. The Latam e-commerce and fintech leader has sustained hypergrowth while scaling to nearly $9 billion in quarterly revenue. Growth is being driven by increasing e-commerce penetration across Latin America, rapid adoption of Mercado, expansion of consumer and merchant lending, rising advertising revenue, and continued gains in logistics efficiency and market share across key markets such as Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina.
Source: Bloomberg, Company Financials