Forrest Li

CEO & Founder, Sea

Search every verified Forrest Li interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Forrest Li, chairman and CEO of Sea Limited, said on the company’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call that the company generated over $7 billion in revenue, a 47% year-on-year increase, and that adjusted EBITDA exceeded $1 billion for the first time. Li stated that 2026 is a year in which the company is “leaning into growth investment to deepen our competitive moat while maintaining financial discipline.” He noted that Shopee delivered a record-setting quarter, with GMV growing 30% year-on-year and adjusted EBITDA of over $220 million. Li said the company is on track to deliver its 2026 guidance of around 25% annual GMV growth for Shopee, with full-year adjusted EBITDA no lower than 2025 in absolute dollar terms. Li also reported that Sea’s loan book reached $9.9 billion at the end of March, an increase of more than 70% year-on-year while maintaining stable asset quality. He said Brazil was the company’s fastest-growing market in the first quarter and continued to be profitable, and that Brazil became the fourth market to cross $1 billion in loan book size, growing over 250% year-on-year. Li described the company’s credit business expansion along three fronts: deepening existing user relationships, acquiring new users with better risk scores, and expanding credit use cases beyond Shopee. He expressed confidence that the digital financial services business “will be a significant long-term profit contributor.”