Marking the 8th Anniversary of our IPO

2025-10-20

Dear Sailors,

Eight years ago today, on Oct 20th 2017, we became a publicly listed company on the New York Stock Exchange.

Over the past two years, the capital market has recognized our hard work, putting our share price on a steady upward trend!

Some of you, especially those who have been with us for a longer time, may be wondering whether this is going to be like what we experienced in 2021 and 2022: our share price going up by a lot, but then falling very quickly when the external environment changed.

I firmly believe that this rise is different. While the external environment will always be unpredictable, I feel much more settled today about our future. We were still a very young public company when we were rocked by the huge, choppy waves that the pandemic created in the capital market. We had been focused on high growth at any cost, and were highly reliant on external capital to expand. When that capital dried up, we were forced to make very hard decisions to survive.

Today, we are a stronger, healthier, more seasoned vessel, and the capital market is recognizing that. We tightened our ship, making ourselves much more efficient. Today, all three of our businesses are growing strongly and profitably, giving us a stronger balance sheet every quarter. We no longer have to rely on external capital to fund our growth, and after eight years as a public company, we better understand how the capital market behaves and how to navigate it. So, even if the seas turn choppy again, we are in much greater control of our own decisions and our own destiny.

I hope our biggest takeaway from our post-Covid experience is that, while our share price is an important indicator, we should always pay more attention to the intrinsic value of our company than to what the capital market is saying about us. Are we bringing more joy and convenience to our customers? Are we using technology to improve more lives? Are we competing strongly and winning in our markets? Are we making ourselves better every day? External events are inevitable, and they will change how the capital market responds to anything we do. But staying true to our fundamentals and values will keep our business buoyant in any weather.

In fact, far from worrying about the next storm, I find myself increasingly excited about how much more room there still is for us to grow.

This is the best time in history to be a tech company. In the past, technological breakthroughs that changed the course of human history occurred much further apart than they do today. Three hundred years passed between the invention of the printing press and the steam engine. It was another hundred years before the electric light would be invented. Then about six decades to the first computer, another four decades to the creation of the Internet, and another three decades to the invention of the smartphone. And then, just ten years later, we saw the first emergence of AI.

In this phase of human history where technological progress is accelerating, tech companies can make an outsized impact on the future of mankind. All the inventions listed above have contributed to huge advancements in human capabilities. Can you imagine life today without access to books, or electricity, or cars? That is how our descendants, a hundred years from now, may feel about AI. And we get to play a role in shaping how that future plays out for them – the kind of value it will create, the kind of lifestyle it will enable, the possibilities that it will open to everyone. That’s incredibly exciting for us!

In your work here at Sea, you would have seen the way mobile internet greatly increased access for all consumers across our markets, especially the underserved. Platforms like ours have brought products and services once only available to the wealthy, or to developed urban areas, within reach of anyone with a smartphone and cell coverage. And this has changed hundreds of millions of lives for the better.

I believe AI will be similarly impactful for all, and most of all for the underserved. We are already starting to see this happen all over the world: AI is expanding access to and improving the quality of education, healthcare, skills training, and more, especially for those who live in remote areas or lack access to specialists. It has the potential to level the playing field and give every human on earth a chance to succeed, regardless of where they come from. This is very aligned with our mission and how we want to use technology to make a lasting, positive impact on humanity.

I was recently asked whether Sea could one day be a trillion dollar company, and my response was that, increasingly, I see the path there – not just for us, but for any company that can truly harness and ride the huge wave of value creation AI will make. Achieving such an aspiration will not come easily for anyone, and it will require us to make the right calls, execute extremely well, remain very disciplined, and compete relentlessly. But a tech transition like this makes it possible.

So, take heart, Sailors. You have worked hard, and thanks to that hard work, we have proven ourselves to the capital market, and regained control of our choices. I feel a great sense of optimism about our future: we are entering a new, uncharted, very exciting world. Let the wind fill our sails, and let us run hard and fast toward the horizon! There is so much life-changing potential left for us to unlock, together.

Happy IPO anniversary, Sea!

Sincerely,
Forrest

P.S. In case you are wondering who asked me the trillion dollar company question, it was from my recent podcast interview: In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen, the CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, which is the largest single investor in the world, and also a large shareholder of Sea. I really enjoyed our conversation! If you would like to watch it, you can find it here.

https://youtu.be/6FTdUO8D20o?si=jjdcvjWhWkMN3PTr

P.S.

GOVERNMENT PENSION FUND GLOBAL HOLDINGS OF EQUITIES AS AT 30 JUNE 2025

	Industry/Sector	Market value (NOK)	Market value (USD)	Voting	Ownership
Sea Ltd	Technology	11,170,443,710	1,103,831,508	1.04	1.21