AI IPOs are just the beginning, says Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan

Blockbuster public offerings from companies involved in the global artificial intelligence race could be an enduring feature of the industry, Min-Liang Tan, CEO at Singaporean gaming company Razer, said Thursday, ahead of a series of widely anticipated public debuts from major AI companies.

"I think with this host of new companies going out into public capital markets, it's super exciting, but I think this would be just the beginning," Tan told CNBC's Joanna Ossinger at Singapore's SuperAI convention, referring to IPO filings from tech giants SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI.

"We're going to see a second generation, a third generation, different waves coming through," he added.

Tan's remarks come a day before Elon Musk's SpaceX — which includes xAI, the business unit overseeing X and Musk's Grok model — makes its public debut, targeting a historic $1.77 trillion valuation in its IPO.

OpenAI filed to go public Monday afternoon stateside, hot on the heels of its rival Anthropic, which submitted an IPO filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission a week earlier.

Anthropic closed its Series H funding round on May 28 at a $965 billion valuation, edging out OpenAI, which was valued at $852 billion in March.

Unlike the frenzy of filings from the AI companies set to make their Wall Street debuts, Tan's Razer delisted from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in April 2022 — after five years on the exchange — in a move that he said was to allow them to focus on AI development.

Razer's privatization deal saw a consortium of investors led by co-founder Tan and Hong Kong-based private equity firm CVC Capital Partners offer up to 10.79 billion Hong Kong dollars ($1.38 billion) to buyout shares they did not own at HK$2.82 apiece. The company debuted in 2017 with its IPO priced at HK$3.88 per share.

The company said in February that it had invested over $600 million in AI development, and has launched a suite of wearable AI products for its gaming-focused core target audience.

Tan touted Project Motoko — the company's AI headset that it launched in January at CES — onstage at SuperAI, which provides users real-time translation services, cooking guidance, and repair instructions.

Razer's Other AI hardware offerings include a workstation designed for heavy AI workloads and Ava, an AI desktop companion.

"We are all-in on AI," Tan said, adding that the company was exploring how AI could exhibit human-like personalities and emotions.