Sea Partners with Google AI Futures Fund to Develop New AI Applications

This partnership expands on an earlier strategic agreement from February 2026, which covered gaming, agentic commerce, and agentic payments. The current initiative focuses on applied AI development, with Google working directly with Sea Labs. This suggests a deepening of their collaboration from general strategic alignment to specific product development efforts.

Sea plans to leverage its operational experience in Southeast Asia and Latin America to create AI applications tailored for local consumers and small businesses. This focus indicates an intent to address regional market needs rather than simply adopting global AI solutions. The emphasis on local relevance could be a key factor in the adoption and effectiveness of the new applications.

Forrest Li, Sea’s Chairman and CEO, stated the ambition is to become an "AI-native company," aiming to discover new possibilities beyond current operations. Jonathan Silber of Google AI Futures Fund highlighted Sea's "talented builders" and "deep technology expertise." This exchange suggests both parties see a mutual benefit in combining Google's advanced models with Sea's development capabilities and market reach.