Report: Trump executive oversees Tencent’s US gaming investment

The U.S. government is reportedly exploring Chinese technology company Tencent and investment-interested American gaming companies. Bloomberg Reports The U.S. Treasury Department for Foreign Investment (CFIUS) has been asked to answer questions about companies’ data-security standards, including epic games and riot games.

CFIUS has the power Investigate foreign investment in US companies When those investments have an impact on national security. Historically, this often refers to exploring foreign access to U.S. natural resources or military secrets, and more recently, CFIUS has taken an extensive interest in foreign access to U.S. customer data.

“When you talk about massive amounts of data, there may be something to see in that group,” Imen Mir, former assistant secretary of investment for treasury, told Bloomberg yesterday. “The question is, does avoiding risks really guarantee avoiding contracts?”

The CFIS investigation comes amid the Trump administration’s actions against Chinese social media users Dictok and Wechat, the latter of which is owned by Tencent. Then Signing of an administrative order prohibiting both applications In August, Trump demanded that they be This weekend the U.S. Removed from App Stores. Dictoc owner Bite Dance is currently Demands investment with Oracle These obstacles can be avoided.

Representatives for Epic and Riot were not immediately available to respond to a request for comment from Ars Technica.

Many fingers in many gaming bags

Tencent, which initially focused on licensing Western games to the Chinese market, has been slowly increasing its investment in non-Chinese companies over the years. 93 per cent of these are owned by the company League of Legends Developer Riot Game since 2011 (and 100 percent since 2015) And 40 percent of epic games since 2012. The consortium also holds a majority stake Fighting between heirs Developer Supercell and Deported route Developer Grinding Gear Games, as well as small shares in companies Including Ubisoft, Activation Blizzard, Funcom, Discord, and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Producer Bluehole.

These ownership stocks occasionally arouse suspicion among some conspiracy theorists, who worry that Chinese companies are collecting their gaming information or spying on their computers through the influence of Tencent in these companies.

“Epic does not share user data with Tencent or any other company,” epic CEO and co-founder Tim Sweeney responded to similar concerns. In a December 2018 Reddit thread. “We do not share, sell, or have broker access to advertising like many companies. I’m the founder and controlling partner of Epic, I will never allow this.”

“Tencent is a significant, but minority partner in the epic,” Sweeney added Another Reddit thread Months later. “I’m the controlling partner of the epic … Epic decisions are ultimately made here in North Carolina based on my beliefs as a game developer about what the sports industry needs!”

Last year, the riot game Its stressed League of Legends Game Broadcasters Their broadcast should not include “personal views on important topics (political, religious or other).” Company Spokesperson Told the LA Times The long-term policy is repetitive “in light of the current situation in Hong Kong and the current global political climate.”