Visa and Tencent Partner to Advance Agentic Commerce and Cross-Border Payments with AI

Visa and Tencent Sign Strategic Partnership for AI-Powered Commerce

Visa and Tencent have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding that establishes a comprehensive framework for collaboration spanning cross-border payments, agentic commerce, enterprise AI, and global business expansion1

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. The agreement merges Tencent's payment solutions, digital platforms, and technology capabilities with Visa's global network and cross-border money movement offerings. This partnership comes weeks after Visa secured regulatory approval from the People's Bank of China to establish a domestic bankcard clearing operation in the country, marking a critical milestone toward entering China's multi-trillion dollar payments market1

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Enhancing Cross-Border Payment Experiences for Travelers

The collaboration builds on an existing partnership focused on international visitors to China and aims to enhance cross-border payment experiences for both inbound and outbound travelers1

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. Through TenPay Global, Tencent's cross-border payment platform, and Visa Pay, the companies plan to make transactions easier as two-way travel and commerce between China and the rest of the world continue to grow. The partnership also extends to cross-border remittance collaboration through Visa Direct, enabling more overseas senders to transfer funds into the Weixin Pay ecosystem1

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. Forest Lin, corporate vice president of Tencent and head of Tencent Financial Technology, stated, "As two-way travel and commerce between China and the rest of the world continue to grow, we are pleased to build on our existing partnership with Visa to deepen cross-border payment connectivity and explore new possibilities in AI-powered agentic payments"2

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Exploring Next-Generation Agentic Payments with AI Agents

The partners are exploring how Visa Intelligent Commerce could support the use of AI agents to help eligible users discover, select, and purchase goods or services1

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. This exploration of next-generation agentic payments includes collaborations involving developer-agent payment experiences and new AI-native commerce models2

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. The partnership extends to Tencent's overseas AI businesses, with a focus on optimizing AI payment experiences and exploring agentic payment opportunities. Tencent's international payments platform, Midas, and Visa already maintain a long-standing gaming partnership that covers joint marketing, global payments and money movement, and risk management1

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The Future of Commerce Shaped by AI-Driven Commerce Solutions

Elaine Chang, Visa's group general manager for Greater China, emphasized that "The next chapter of commerce will be shaped by increasingly connected digital ecosystems and new AI-powered experiences. Our partnership with Tencent gives us an opportunity to help connect those experiences to Visa's global network, opening more ways for consumers to pay and businesses to participate in global commerce, with trust and consumer control at the heart of how we innovate"2

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. Research from PYMNTS and Visa's "Global Digital Shopping Index: UAE Playbook" revealed that 72% of surveyed UAE consumers had used AI during their most recent purchase, compared with 53% of Brazilian shoppers and 46% of U.S. consumers2

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. This growing adoption of AI-powered agentic commerce signals that merchants will need to rethink how products are presented, how customers reach checkout, and what happens when software begins acting on their behalf. The Visa and Tencent partnership positions both companies to lead in this transformation, combining technological innovation with established payment infrastructure to create seamless AI-driven commerce solutions across borders.