Tencent Cloud & Cartesia Team Up to Boost Real-Time Voice AI

Tencent Cloud, the cloud division of global technology leader Tencent, has announced a strategic partnership with Cartesia, a San Francisco–based startup that recently secured more than US$100 million to develop an advanced Voice AI platform. By combining Cartesia’s advanced Sonic 3 model with Tencent RTC’s reliable global communication network, this partnership aims to create the next generation of conversational AI experiences.

Through this alliance, Cartesia’s groundbreaking voice synthesis capabilities will be seamlessly integrated with Tencent RTC’s robust real-time communication technology. This combination aims to provide enterprises and developers with faster, more natural, and highly reliable voice-based interactions on a global scale. As a result, organizations across industries will be able to build scalable, high-performance conversational AI applications that feel more human and intuitive.

Cartesia is transforming speech synthesis with its innovative State Space Model, designed specifically for real-time voice AI. Its Sonic 3 model represents a major leap forward, offering ultra-low latency, highly expressive speech, and massive concurrency support. The platform supports more than 40 languages and includes features such as emotion tagging, accent control, and customizable pronunciation—giving developers full flexibility to create personalized, expressive Voice AI experiences for diverse global audiences.

By pairing these capabilities with Tencent RTC’s infrastructure, the partnership gains access to a powerful communication backbone consisting of over 3,200 global nodes and worldwide latency under 300 milliseconds. Tencent’s advanced features—such as AI-powered noise suppression and strong reinforcement for weak network environments—ensure that real-time AI voice applications perform consistently even in regions with connectivity challenges, including Southeast Asia and Africa.

As part of this new relationship, Tencent Cloud and Cartesia have unveiled a Conversational AI Demo to highlight how Sonic 3 integrates with Tencent RTC’s technology. The demo showcases natural, low-latency voice interactions suited for industries such as customer support, fintech, education, and entertainment. Developers and enterprises can explore the demo through the TRTC Conversational AI interface, gaining firsthand experience of how easily they can build and deploy cutting-edge Voice AI applications.

Wison Xie, Head of Product at Tencent RTC, said, “Leveraging our real-time communication expertise, we are excited to support Cartesia in redefining real-time voice AI experiences for enterprises and developers worldwide. Together, we are transforming conversational AI from a remarkable research achievement into a practical, real-world technology. This collaboration underscores our commitment to driving innovation, delivering operational excellence, and creating meaningful impact for customers across industries and markets.”

Aaron Melgar, GTM Lead at Cartesia, added, “Our partnership with Tencent RTC represents a major milestone in advancing real-time Voice AI for production applications. By integrating Cartesia's Sonic 3 with Tencent RTC's enterprise-grade global communication infrastructure, this collaboration delivers lifelike voice interactions with lightning-fast response times—powering mission-critical conversations and setting a new benchmark for the future of communication. We are thrilled to showcase these capabilities through the new Conversational AI Demo and look forward to deepening our partnership to shape the next generation of real-time voice AI experiences.”

This partnership marks a major step toward making advanced conversational AI more accessible, scalable, and reliable worldwide.