Sea and OpenAI widen their pact, putting Shopee inside ChatGPT across Southeast Asia and Brazil
On June 22 Sea Limited and OpenAI expanded their partnership, integrating its Shopee e-commerce platform directly into ChatGPT. Users in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan and Vietnam — plus Brazil — can now discover Shopee products through conversational prompts before continuing checkout on the platform. Sea says the move makes Shopee the first e-commerce platform of its kind available across both Southeast Asia and Latin America inside ChatGPT.
For merchants, ChatGPT for Business will assist with product listings, marketing content, customer-service workflows and automation; for developers, the deal deepens use of OpenAI's Codex, building on a regional hackathon that opened in Singapore in early June and drew more than 1,200 applications. The expansion follows an August 2025 memorandum of understanding and Sea's April 2026 AI Centre of Excellence in Singapore, and runs alongside a separate Google agentic-commerce tie-up.
Malaysia's trade surplus hits a record RM132.77 billion as AI-driven chip and energy exports surge
The Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) reported on June 22 that Malaysia's trade surplus for January–May 2026 reached RM132.77 billion ($31.99 billion), nearly triple the RM46.93 billion recorded in the same period a year earlier. Total trade rose 18.3% to RM1.46 trillion, with exports climbing 24.3% to RM793.84 billion against imports of RM661.07 billion, up 11.8%.
Electrical and electronics led at RM382.89 billion, up 39.7%, with semiconductor exports up 61.6% on AI-infrastructure demand. Automotive components and EVs jumped 115.8%, petroleum products rose 22.9% and LNG edged up 1.5%. MATRADE attributed part of the energy contribution to elevated global prices amid geopolitical tension.
Philippines' BSP clears banks to run digital financial marketplaces under Circular 1237
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas published Circular No. 1237, series of 2026, on June 19, letting BSP-supervised banks and e-money issuers operate digital marketplaces that distribute their own and third-party financial and non-financial products through a single app. The activity is classified as Type A — a core licensed function carrying strict governance standards.
Operators must onboard at least three providers unaffiliated with their own group or conglomerate, with up to two years to comply, and must meet the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act's authentication and real-time fraud-monitoring requirements. A ban on displaying online-gambling products takes effect immediately, with no grace period, while other provisions phase in over the weeks following publication.
Eyes on the Day Ahead
No single hard deadline falls in the next 24–48 hours, so the items worth tracking sit in the next three to five days. Indonesia's OJK has set a June 30 deadline for authentication upgrades among licensed crypto traders, a compliance gate that will test smaller operators. In the Philippines, the staggered effectivity window for Circular 1237's general provisions begins to run, while in Malaysia the question is whether the record trade data colours Bank Negara's tone at any upcoming policy commentary.
Layer 7 Ventures is a research-driven firm focused on AI and cryptocurrency in Southeast Asia. Views expressed are those of the firm and do not constitute investment advice.
