Shopee Cuts Hundreds of Developer Jobs as Sea Pivots to AI

Shopee has begun laying off hundreds of developers globally, including staff in Singapore, as parent company Sea Limited restructures its workforce in a decisive pivot toward artificial intelligence. The cuts affect approximately 8% of Shopee's developer workforce worldwide.

The layoffs, first reported by Bloomberg and confirmed by Shopee to Vulcan Post, hit product and engineering teams hardest in Singapore. Affected employees were notified individually after losing access to work accounts, with severance packages offered at one month of salary per year of service plus an additional two months. The Creative Media and Publishing Union (CMPU) was notified in advance and had representatives on site to support affected workers. No company-wide announcement was made.

Sea Limited has been steadily building its AI capabilities — in February, the company announced a partnership with Google to develop AI-powered shopping agents, and has since established dedicated teams to identify new AI investment opportunities. The layoffs come as Sea faces intensifying competition across its core e-commerce, gaming, and digital financial services businesses, and the workforce reduction is widely seen as a cost restructuring to fund AI expansion rather than simply cutting headcount.

Why it matters for Singapore: Shopee is one of Singapore's most prominent homegrown tech companies, and its pivot to AI reflects a broader trend playing out across the city-state's tech sector. With AI salaries in Singapore climbing up to five times faster than the broader market, the calculus for tech employers is shifting: fewer but more specialised AI-focused roles, at higher pay, replacing broader developer teams. For Singapore's tech workforce and policymakers, this raises urgent questions about reskilling and the shape of the country's digital economy.