Sea and OpenAI bring their Regional Codex Hackathon Series to Malaysia on Dec 5

#What happened

Sea and OpenAI announced the Malaysia edition of the Sea x OpenAI Regional Codex Hackathon Series, announced October 12, 2026 via a Media OutReach Newswire release issued by Shopee Malaysia. The one-day hackathon takes place in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, December 5, 2026, under the theme "Solving Unmet Needs with AI." It expects about 40 teams of developers, students, startups, and technology builders from across Malaysia to build practical AI solutions with OpenAI's Codex, guided by experts from Sea and OpenAI.

#Why it matters

This is the latest stop in a regional series building OpenAI's Codex developer base across Asia Pacific: it launched in Singapore in June, continued in Taiwan, with Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand editions also planned. Sea is a meaningful adoption signal for Codex, having rolled it out across its own engineering organization. First place wins $30,000 in OpenAI API credits, second place $15,000, third place $5,000, and all members of the top five teams get one year of ChatGPT Pro. Registrations are open until November 6, 2026.

#The details

The event runs 8:00am to 9:00pm at the Mandarin Oriental, Kuala Lumpur. OpenAI's Jon Sugihara, Head of AI Success Engineering for Asia Pacific, said the partnership is meant to help participants use Codex and models like GPT-6 Astra to turn ideas into practical solutions. The prize statement and schedule come from the official announcement; registration details are in the source link.

Verified October 12, 2026.