The Singapore gaming billionaire Min-Liang Tan, cofounder and CEO of Razer, is doubling down on artificial intelligence. After two decades of leading the global gaming hardware giant, Tan is steering the company into AI-powered software tools that promise to change how games are developed and played.
At Razer’s $75 million Singapore headquarters, Tan unveiled two key products: QA Co-AI for game testing and Game Co-AI for real-time coaching. QA Co-AI detects bugs faster and more efficiently than manual testing, cutting costs by up to 40% and reducing timelines by half. Game Co-AI, still in beta, helps players improve skills on the spot, removing the need for endless YouTube tutorials.
Tan believes this new chapter is critical as hardware sales stagnate in the $42 billion gaming peripherals market. Inflation, higher costs, and supply chain pressures have slowed growth. By contrast, AI in gaming is booming, with the global market expected to jump from $2.3 billion in 2023 to $28 billion by 2033.
“We believe AI gaming is going to completely disrupt the entire industry,” Tan says, dressed in his signature black T-shirt and jeans. “And we want to be at the forefront of it.”
Razer is well positioned to capture this opportunity. The company already works with 55,000 developers worldwide, giving it insight into rising gaming trends. Its esports division, Team Razer, partners with elite players and teams, providing valuable data to train AI coaching models. Early feedback from testers suggests that Razer’s tools could reshape the gameplay experience by making development more efficient and coaching more personalized.
The billionaire entrepreneur is also betting that AI can drive Razer’s evolution into a high-margin software services firm. For investors—including CVC Capital Partners and billionaire board member Lim Kaling—the pivot could significantly boost Razer’s valuation. The company went private in 2022 after a $3.2 billion deal but is eyeing a possible return to public markets.
Tan, who started Razer in 2005 after designing the world’s first PC gaming mouse, has always been ahead of the curve. Past expansions into fintech and cloud services had mixed results, but they laid the foundation for Razer’s software ecosystem, which now serves over 200 million users. With AI, he sees a chance to unlock fresh revenue streams through subscriptions and licensing deals with studios.
Razer plans to scale fast, hiring 150 AI specialists in Singapore and expanding hubs in the U.S. and Europe. “It’s about pulling the entire ecosystem together,” says Tan. The goal: to establish Razer as the “Nike of esports,” not only through hardware but also through AI-driven gameplay solutions.
The stakes are high. Competitors like Tencent, Unity, and Krafton are already deploying AI to auto-generate worlds and design smarter non-player characters. But Tan is confident. “AI will increase productivity, so you’re going to get more work done in less time,” he says. “And that means more time for gaming.”