Although the order initially looked like it might target Tencent’s wider business, officials later clarified it’s only aimed at WeChat.

Chinese tech giant Tencent’s stock fell by as much as 10% Thursday, wiping $45 billion off its market cap, after it was named in a vaguely-worded executive order issued by President Trump.
The order, which goes into effect on September 20, prohibits US citizens and companies from carrying out any “transaction” with Tencent-owned chat app WeChat, although the orders were not precise about what counts as a “transaction.”
A second, similar order was targeted at ByteDance, the Chinese firm which owns wildly popular short-form video app TikTok.
The Tencent order stipulated that it applied to: “Any transaction that is related to WeChat by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with Tencent Holdings Ltd […] or any subsidiary of that entity.’
The vague wording implied that Tencent’s entire business could be impacted, with potentially serious ramifications for the US gaming industry.
As well as owning WeChat, which is extremely prevalent in mainland China, Tencent is also the largest gaming company in the world with stakes in Epic Games, Activision/Blizzard, and Ubisoft, as well as outright owning LA-based games studio Riot Games.
A White House official confirmed to Business Insider late Thursday that the order only applies to transactions relating to WeChat, and not Tencent’s wider business.
Nonetheless, it hammered the company’s market value. Tencent’s stock plummeted as much as 10% after the order was first issued, wiping $45 billion off its market value, Bloomberg reports.
The stock recovered after the clarification, and was down 5% on Friday morning.
At time of writing Tencent’s market cap stands at $5 trillion.
Tencent did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ByteDance has threatened to sue the Trump administration over the order, which it says was issued without due process.