- BABA
- MELI
- SE
Sea Limited SE has added a concrete artificial intelligence (AI) catalyst to Shopee through a strategic partnership with OpenAI. The June agreement targets AI-powered e-commerce across Southeast Asia and Brazil, broader access to ChatGPT and deeper developer engagement through Codex.
For investors, the opportunity is practical rather than purely promotional. Shopee already uses AI in search, recommendations, seller tools and customer service, giving Sea a base from which the OpenAI relationship could extend commerce functionality.
Sea’s OpenAI Deal Targets E-Commerce Innovation
The partnership is designed to bring OpenAI technology into markets where Shopee already operates at large scale. Shopee generated $37.3 billion of gross merchandise value in the first quarter of 2026, up 30.2% year over year, on 4 billion gross orders.
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MercadoLibre MELI operates a major online commerce and fintech ecosystem in Latin America. AlibabaBABA owns Lazada, a leading e-commerce platform across six Southeast Asian markets. AI-enabled discovery and seller tools could become another way for Shopee to differentiate.
SE Could Extend AI Across Shopee Users and Sellers
The Shopee App is now available in ChatGPT across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam and Brazil. Users can discover Shopee products through conversational prompts before continuing the shopping journey on Shopee.
Sea also plans to broaden OpenAI access through ShopeeVIP and introduce ChatGPT for Business to eligible sellers. That expands the potential use cases from product discovery to listing creation, marketing content, customer service workflows and business automation.
Sea’s AI Center Adds Infrastructure Behind the Push
Sea established an Artificial Intelligence Centre of Excellence in Singapore in April with support from Digital Industry Singapore. The center is focused on foundational AI, scalable deployment and AI-native talent and operating models.
That infrastructure complements the OpenAI partnership. Sea said its Compass Max v3.5 foundation model and variants are already powering AI features across Shopee, indicating that the company is building both internal capabilities and external partnerships around the technology.
SE’s AI Opportunity Comes With Higher Spending
Sea’s AI ambitions sit alongside a broader investment agenda. The AI center is expected to support research, engineering and product development, while Shopee is separately investing in delivery, fulfillment, the ShopeeVIP membership program and user acquisition.
Those investments have a near-term earnings cost. Shopee adjusted EBITDA declined to $223.2 million in the first quarter from $264.4 million a year earlier, even as marketplace monetization strengthened.
