Sea Opens Asia Coding Race With Openai Arabian Post

(MENAFN- The Arabian Post) clearfix">Singapore will host the first stop of a new Sea and OpenAI Codex hackathon series across Asia Pacific, placing the city-state at the centre of a wider push to accelerate AI-native software development among experienced builders.

The Sea x OpenAI Codex Hackathon is scheduled for 6 June 2026 and will bring together more than 150 developers, engineers and AI builders working in up to 40 teams. Participants are expected to build practical AI applications using Codex and related coding-agent tools, with the programme designed as a one-day, in-person event rather than an introductory workshop.

The launch marks a notable collaboration between Sea, the Singapore-founded technology group behind Shopee, Garena and Monee, and OpenAI, whose developer tools have become central to the global shift towards agentic coding. Singapore is the opening venue for the regional series, with Indonesia, Taiwan and Vietnam among markets expected to follow as the initiative expands across Asia Pacific.

Applications for the Singapore event opened on 11 May and will close on 28 May, with successful teams to be notified on 1 June. The hackathon will run from 8.30am to 9pm, with participants required to build during the event itself. Pre-built projects cannot be submitted, a rule intended to keep judging focused on execution, originality and effective use of Codex during the allotted time.

Teams will consist of three to four members, and each participant must apply individually under the same team name. Selection will be based on technical background, proposed build direction and alignment with the hackathon's stated themes. The event is targeted at engineers, founders and builders already comfortable with AI coding tools and production-grade software development.

See also Gemini sharpens Google Home controls

The hackathon will focus on three broad areas: autonomous and adaptive AI, AI-native products and operations, and deep domain AI. The first category centres on agents able to operate with less human oversight while responding reliably to changing conditions. The second asks teams to imagine products and workflows shaped by AI at the core, rather than as an add-on feature. The third rewards applications that show strong understanding of a specific professional or industry domain.

Prizes underline the developer-focused nature of the programme. The winning team will receive US$30,000 in OpenAI API credits, with US$15,000 for second place and US$5,000 for third. Members of the top five teams will receive one year of ChatGPT Pro access. Judging will assess problem framing, build quality, depth of thinking and the effectiveness with which Codex is used.

Senior figures from both companies are expected to be linked to the event, including David Chen, Sea co-founder and chief product officer at Shopee; Oliver Jay, OpenAI's managing director, international; and Thibault Sottiaux, OpenAI's vice-president and head of Codex. Their involvement signals that the series is intended to be more than a community coding contest, positioning it instead as a test bed for how AI-assisted development may reshape product teams.

Sea has framed Codex adoption as part of a broader engineering transformation across its businesses. The group operates at large scale across e-commerce, digital entertainment and financial services, with products serving hundreds of millions of users. Its engineering demands span fragmented markets, multiple languages, payments, logistics, gaming infrastructure and financial technology, making Southeast Asia a demanding environment for AI tools that must understand complex systems rather than simply generate short code snippets.

See also Ocean power draws AI capital offshore

Codex is being rolled out across Sea's developer organisation, with internal usage data showing high weekly engagement among users. Feedback from developers who rated the tool highly has pointed to improvements in code understanding, debugging and feature development. Company leaders have described the shift as a move from passive autocomplete towards agentic workflows where AI tools assist with requirements, test-driven implementation, edge-case detection and debugging loops.

The timing also reflects Sea's stronger operating momentum. For the first quarter of 2026, the group reported total revenue of about US$7.1 billion, up 46.6 percent from the same quarter a year earlier. Shopee revenue rose 44.4 percent to US$4.5 billion, Monee revenue increased 57.8 percent to US$1.2 billion, and Garena revenue climbed 40.6 percent to US$696.6 million. Growth has come alongside higher costs, particularly in logistics, marketing and credit-related operations, reinforcing the strategic value of software productivity and automation.

For OpenAI, the series extends its push to embed Codex within real-world developer communities beyond the United States. Asia Pacific offers a large and varied pool of builders working on commerce, logistics, payments, education, enterprise automation and consumer services. The hackathon format gives OpenAI a route to observe practical use cases while strengthening ties with developers who may later build on its API ecosystem.

MENAFN16052026000152002308ID1111125239