Ant International Connects 150 Million Merchants to 2 Billion Accounts, Unveils AI Payment Protocol

Ant International, the overseas spin-off of Chinese fintech giant Ant Group, has connected more than 150 million merchants with over 2 billion consumer accounts around the world, as it positions its payments network as core infrastructure for the emerging AI commerce economy. The figures, disclosed at the company's MoMents 2026 forum in Kuala Lumpur, which ran from Monday to Wednesday, underscore the scale Ant is seeking to leverage amid the rising adoption of artificial intelligence agents. Ant International said its network supported more than 300 payment methods across 220 markets and processes over 20 million transactions a day on average, and it was seeking to broaden its market reach in Asia, Latin America and Europe, the Middle East and Africa. At the event, the company unveiled its open-sourced Agentic Mobile Protocol, which is designed to enable AI agents to connect securely with digital wallets, banking apps and other mobile interfaces. The framework aims to move beyond traditional card-based systems towards a mobile- and AI-native payments layer. Ant Group rolled out a business-facing AI payment processing product through Alipay this week, allowing merchants – including small operators and "one-person companies" – to receive payments automatically when AI agents purchase their services. The tool is designed to support pay-per-use models and reduce the need for merchants to build their own payments infrastructure.