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Sea Ltd is widening its AI push with a new internal team reviewing startup investment opportunities, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The company, which operates Shopee, Garena and digital financial services arm Monee, is looking at how AI can support its next phase of growth across e-commerce, gaming and financial services.
The new unit forms part of a wider effort to allocate capital to AI projects inside and outside Sea. It has been reviewing potential investments in AI startups globally.
Long-time Sea executive Endong Zhang leads the team and is also involved in other projects examining how AI can be used across the group.
Sea’s increased focus on AI follows comments by founder and CEO Forrest Li last year that the company could reach a trillion-dollar market capitalisation if it made the right decisions around the technology.
Sea Expands AI Use Across Core Businesses
The company has already been using AI in areas such as product recommendations, seller tools and customer service.
In February, Sea expanded its partnership with Google to develop AI tools across Shopee, Garena and Monee, including an agentic shopping prototype for Shopee.
The move puts Sea among a growing group of e-commerce and technology companies increasing their AI investments as competition intensifies.
In Southeast Asia, Shopee faces pressure from Alibaba-owned Lazada and ByteDance’s TikTok Shop, both of which have been adding AI features for shoppers and merchants.
Lazada has introduced AI agents for refunds, logistics, product listings and marketing, while ByteDance’s TikTok Shop has also been adding AI tools for merchants.
Sea declined to comment on the AI investment team.
Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by mkmult via Magnific
