Yat Siu to take over as CEO while retaining executive chairman role
Animoca Brands announced that Yat Siu will become CEO on Dec. 1, 2026, while keeping his role as executive chairman. The move puts him in direct charge of daily operations. According to the company’s Nov. 9 announcement, Evan Auyang, group president since 2021, will shift to a senior advisory position reporting to the board. Siu will oversee corporate operations and project development, while the board will continue to handle strategy, governance and compliance oversight.
A wider portfolio and a new executive line-up
Animoca says its portfolio covers more than 600 companies and digital assets. It also builds projects such as The Sandbox and Anichess. Robby Yung, a former Animoca CEO, appears in the senior executive team as CEO of investments and CEO of The Sandbox. The structure seems designed to keep investment and product work close to the top as Siu takes on more day-to-day duties.
AI agents as the first focus
Siu’s strategy is built around three businesses. The first is Minds, a personal AI agent platform that launched in beta about six months ago. The idea is simple enough: users give instructions in ordinary language instead of dealing with wallets, transaction fees and bridging themselves. That could make web3 tools easier for people who do not want to learn every step. Maybe. The second is institutional digital money and investment products. The third is Moca Network and AIR, which the company says provide identity, credentials and permissions agents need to transact securely and verifiably.
Institutional products move ahead
The institutional work is already moving. The Defiant reported in August 2025 that Animoca was co-developing NUVA, a marketplace for tokenized real-world assets, with Provenance Blockchain Labs. In his shareholder letter, Siu named NUVA and Animoca’s work with Franklin Templeton as efforts to broaden access to tokenized investments. For the existing portfolio, he listed product focus, real-world utility, operational discipline and capital efficiency. He said institutional capabilities need to turn into adoption and sustainable revenue. The longer goal is AI agents that can access investments, allocate capital and transact for users.
