Tencent Acquires Microsoft’s WizardLM AI Team to Strengthen Hunyuan Division

Tencent has acquired the WizardLM team, a Beijing-based AI research group previously part of Microsoft. Can Xu, a senior AI researcher, confirmed via X (formerly Twitter) that the team has joined Tencent’s Hunyuan division, which is responsible for developing AI models including video and 3D object generators. WizardLM has already launched a model under Tencent branding: Hunyuan-TurboS 0416, which reportedly surpasses models like Google’s Gemma 3 series in performance. The exact number of team members who moved to Tencent is unclear. WizardLM gained attention in April 2024 when Microsoft removed their WizardLM-2 models shortly after release due to missing toxicity testing, which disrupted open-source AI communities on platforms like Hugging Face. The models had seen substantial downloads before their takedown. Despite the controversy, Tencent is integrating WizardLM into its broader AI ambitions, having recently reorganized Hunyuan and committed nearly $12.5 billion in capital expenditures, much of it toward AI infrastructure. Tencent credits AI efforts for an 8% growth in Q1 2025. The move reflects the growing strategic importance of AI capabilities in major tech firms’ global competition.