Sea founder Forrest Li told employees a trillion dollar market capitalisation – an increase of about 10 times – is possible as the Southeast Asia e-commerce leader joins tech companies globally betting on artificial intelligence for growth.
In a memo to staff Monday, seen by Bloomberg News, Li compared the rapid growth of AI to the personal computer and smartphone revolutions that expanded consumer access to products and services once available only to the wealthy. But Li said it would not be easy for the gaming and online retail giant to harness the value creation AI would bring.
“It will require us to make the right calls, execute extremely well, remain very disciplined and compete relentlessly,” Li said in the memo on the eighth anniversary of Sea’s stock-market debut. “But a tech transition like this makes it possible” for Sea to be a trillion dollar company, he said.
Li, who is fond of penning memos to Sea’s 80,000-plus employees, takes a different tone from a year earlier, when he warned of a difficult transition to AI. Since then, Sea has doubled down on the technology, integrating AI into its daily operations in areas such as customer service and gaming.
Li also touched on the company’s rising share price, relaying fears that it might fall quickly if the external environment changed – echoing memories of its crash at the end of 2021. He said the company was in a better position financially than in the previous decade and did not need to rely on external capital to fund growth.
