Yat Siu to Become Animoca Brands CEO in AI and Institutional Push

Yat Siu will become CEO of Animoca Brands on Dec. 1, 2026, while remaining executive chairman, taking direct charge of daily operations as the web3 builder and investor focuses on AI agents and institutional financial products.

Animoca’s Nov. 9 announcement said Evan Auyang, group president since 2021, will move into a senior advisory role reporting to the board. Siu will oversee day-to-day corporate operations and project development, while the board retains responsibility for strategy, governance and compliance oversight.

The company says its portfolio spans more than 600 companies and digital assets, alongside projects it builds including The Sandbox and Anichess. Robby Yung, a former Animoca CEO, is listed in the new senior executive team as CEO of investments and CEO of The Sandbox.

In his X article announcing the move, Siu wrote: “My focus will be to unify our long-term vision with decisive operational execution as we scale our core businesses and ecosystem.”

Connecting AI Agents to Web3 Finance

Animoca is organizing its strategy around three businesses: personal AI agent platform Minds; institutional digital money and investment products; and Moca Network and AIR, which the company says provide the identity, credentials and permissions agents need to transact securely and verifiably.

The AI effort predates the leadership change. Siu said Minds launched in beta roughly six months ago. His pitch is that agents can let users give instructions in ordinary language rather than navigate the mechanics of wallets, transaction fees and bridging themselves.

The institutional expansion is also already under way. 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 identified NUVA and Animoca’s collaboration with Franklin Templeton as initiatives aimed at broadening access to tokenized investments.

For Animoca’s existing portfolio, Siu set out a focus on products, real-world utility, operational discipline and capital efficiency. He said the priority for its institutional capabilities is to turn them into “adoption and sustainable revenue,” while building toward AI agents that can access investments, allocate capital and transact for users.