Tech Giants Launch Campus Recruitment Drives with AI Talent in Focus

Recently, Chinese internet giants Tencent, Alibaba, and ByteDance have successively announced their 2026 campus recruitment plans. Tencent is offering over 70 positions across five major categories, while Alibaba and ByteDance plan to hire over 7,000 and 5,000 graduates respectively. Notably, AI-related positions account for a significantly larger share, reflecting the industry's strong demand for artificial intelligence talent.

Tencent officially launched its 2026 campus recruitment today, targeting students graduating between January 2025 and December 2026. The program includes over 70 roles spanning technology, product, design, marketing, and administrative functions, with particularly strong demand for software development and technical research positions. In addition to its existing "2026 Qingyun Program" for top technical talent, Tencent will launch an AI product manager trainee program for elite product professionals in early August.

Tencent is placing special emphasis on AI recruitment. A company spokesperson stated that the "AI+" sector will see substantially increased investment in graduate hiring, offering more extensive and cutting-edge AI-related opportunities for young professionals to engage deeply with technological transformation.

On August 5, Alibaba unveiled plans to extend over 7,000 offers in its 2026 autumn campus recruitment, covering 15 business groups including Alibaba Group, Taotian Group, Alibaba Cloud, Alibaba International, Tongyi Laboratory, Smart Information, DingTalk, and Amap.

Compared to its spring recruitment, Alibaba has significantly intensified its focus on AI talent, with AI-related positions now accounting for over 60% of openings. Notably, 80% of roles at Alibaba Cloud, Alibaba International, and DingTalk are AI-focused, while Amap's AI positions represent 75% of its hiring.

ByteDance: China Hiring Exceeds 5,000 with 23% R&D Growth

Also on August 5, ByteDance launched its 2026 campus recruitment, planning to hire over 5,000 graduates in China across eight business areas including R&D and operations. R&D positions have increased by 23% year-over-year, covering core areas like algorithms, front-end, and client development. Non-R&D hiring surged over 100% YoY, with plans to recruit more than 1,500 professionals in operations, sales, and marketing.

In recent years, ByteDance has accelerated its global expansion, intensifying efforts in short video, e-commerce, and enterprise services, leading to sustained growth in demand for technical and operational talent.