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Razer Inc. is an American-Singaporean
multinational corporation A multinational corporation (MNC; also called a multinational enterprise (MNE), transnational enterprise (TNE), transnational corporation (TNC), international corporation, or stateless corporation, is a corporate organization that owns and cont ...
and
technology company A technology company (or tech company) is a company that focuses primarily on the manufacturing, support, research and development of—most commonly computing, telecommunication and consumer electronics–based—technology-intensive products and ...
that makes, develops, and sells
consumer electronics Consumer electronics, also known as home electronics, are electronic devices intended for everyday household use. Consumer electronics include those used for entertainment, Communication, communications, and recreation. Historically, these prod ...
,
financial services Financial services are service (economics), economic services tied to finance provided by financial institutions. Financial services encompass a broad range of tertiary sector of the economy, service sector activities, especially as concerns finan ...
, and gaming hardware. The brand was founded in 1998, then refounded in 2005 by Min-Liang Tan and Robert "RazerGuy" Krakoff, although the business originated in 1999 in the US. It is dual headquartered in the
one-north one-north is a subzone of Queenstown, Singapore, Queenstown, Singapore, first developed by JTC Corporation as the country's research and development and high technology cluster. It was first conceptualised in 1991 as part of the National Tech ...
subzone of Queenstown, Singapore, and
Irvine, California Irvine () is a Planned community, planned city in central Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. It was named in 1888 for the landowner James Irvine. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the ...
, US.


History


1998–2005: Founding and early challenges

Razer began as a
San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...
, California-based subsidiary of kärna LLC in 1998, which was created to develop and market a high-end computer gaming mouse, the Boomslang, targeted to computer gamers. Kärna was shut down in 2000 due to bankruptcy. The current iteration of Razer was founded in 2005 by Min-Liang Tan, a Singaporean NUS graduate, and Robert Krakoff after they procured the rights to the Razer brand following a large investment from Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing and Singaporean holding company Temasek Holdings.


2015–2016: Ouya acquisition and Forge TV

Razer bought the software assets of the Android-based microconsole Ouya from its parent company Ouya Inc. on 27 July 2015, while the hardware was discontinued. Ouya's technical team joined Razer's team in developing their own microconsole, which was called the Forge TV. It was discontinued in 2016.


2016–2018: THX, Nextbit acquisition and expansions

According to THX CEO Ty Ahmad-Taylor, Razer purchased THX from
Creative Technology Creative Technology Ltd., or Creative Labs Pte Ltd., is a Singaporean multinational electronics company mainly dealing with Audio equipment, audio technologies and products such as speakers, headphones, sound cards and other digital media. Foun ...
in October 2016. Razer noted that THX's expertise in audio and visual quality would complement its own gaming-focused offerings, potentially expanding to areas like virtual reality and live streaming. In January 2017, Razer bought manufacturer Nextbit, the startup behind the Robin smartphone. Shortly after in November that, Razer unveiled the Razer Phone, its first
smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...
whose design is based on that of the Robin. In July 2017, Razer filed to go public through an IPO in Hong Kong. In October, it was confirmed that Razer plans to offer 1,063,600,000 shares at a range of $0.38–$0.51. On 14 November, Razer was officially listed on
Hong Kong Stock Exchange The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (, SEHK, also known as Hong Kong Stock Exchange) is a stock exchange based in Hong Kong. It is one of the largest stock exchanges in Asia and the List of major stock exchanges, 9th largest globally by market ...
under the stock code 1337, a reference to leet speak commonly used by gamers. Razer's IPO closed 18% up on the first day of trading and was the 2nd most successful IPO of 2017 in Hong Kong. In April 2018, Razer announced that it was planning to fully acquire the e-payments platform MOL for about $61 million. In July, Razer made its debut in
Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...
by launching an e-wallet service called Razer Pay. They also announced the Razer Phone 2 in October. On 21 December 2018, Razer announced its new seven-story South-east Asia headquarters in the
one-north one-north is a subzone of Queenstown, Singapore, Queenstown, Singapore, first developed by JTC Corporation as the country's research and development and high technology cluster. It was first conceptualised in 1991 as part of the National Tech ...
subzone of Queenstown, Singapore. The building was expected to be ready by 2020, with Boustead Projects' joint venture firm constructing it. The exterior would be lit with LED strips representing a central processing unit in operation. Razer held its ground-breaking ceremony on 22 February 2019, with a new digital real estate start-up called Echo Base launched the same day. 600 more staff were planned over the next few years, adding to the 400 staff based then. The first smart city project in the region would be developed soon.


2019–2020: Razer Game Store closure and pandemic response

In February 2019, Razer announced it was closing its Razer Game Store as part of the company's realignment plans. On 21 May 2019, Razer released a statement that announced that Ouya online accounts and services would be discontinued on 25 June 2019. According to Razer, most apps will become unusable on the platform, many relying on the user accounts to work. Razer suggests that users may be able to transfer purchases to other storefront platforms like
Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store, Play Store, or sometimes the Android Store (and was formerly Android Market), is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certifie ...
if developers and publishers agree to such. In May 2020, Razer announced the Razer Health initiative, sponsoring high-quality certified surgical masks to governments, healthcare organizations, and individuals around the world. In October 2020, Razer announced it was launching a new virtual prepaid debit card starting with Singapore in January 2021.


2021–2025: New headquarters and delisting

In 2021, Razer announced the shutting down of Razer Pay (Beta) e-wallet in Malaysia and Singapore. In February 2021, CEO Tan Min-Liang announced that Razer will move its Singapore headquarters to a much larger building that would open in the second quarter of 2021. Razer planned to hire up to 1,000 positions for the new headquarters. The headquarters officially opened on 26 October 2021, which was officiated by the Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore,
Heng Swee Keat Heng Swee Keat (; born 15 April 1961) is a Singaporean former politician and former police officer who served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore from 2019 until 2025. He was the Parliament of Singapore, Member of Parliament (MP) who rep ...
, at the ceremony. The building consisted of a "RazerStore" and a "RazerCafe". On 26 April 2022, cofounder Robert Krakoff died. As of 12 May 2022, no cause of death has been confirmed from the company or his family. In May 2022, Razer delisted from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. On April 2, 2025, Razer halted sales of all laptops and certain accessories from its U.S. website. This was the same day as the announcement of upcoming U.S. reciprocal tariffs. As of April 8, 2025, Razer has not published an official statement regarding the sales halt and if it was related to the tariffs.


Products

Razer's products are generally targeted at gamers and include gaming laptops, gaming tablets, and PC peripherals such as
mice A mouse (: mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...
(e.g. Razer Naga), audio devices, keyboards, mouse mats, and gamepads. Most Razer products are named after predatory or venomous animals, ranging from
snakes Snakes are elongated Limbless vertebrate, limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically Squamata, squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping Scale (zoology), scales much like other members of ...
(mice),
insects Insects (from Latin ') are hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of jointed ...
(mouse mats), arachnids (keyboards), marine creatures (audio), and felines (
console Console may refer to: Computing and video games * System console, a physical device to operate a computer ** Virtual console, a user interface for multiple computer consoles on one device ** Command-line interface, a method of interacting with ...
peripherals). The exceptions to this are the Razer Blade series of laptops and Razer Edge gaming tablet. Razer has also released a
VOIP software Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables Voice call, voice calls to be tran ...
called Razer Comms. The Razer DeathAdder gaming mouse introduced in 2006 is the company's most popular mouse line by sales, having sold over 20 million units worldwide by June 2024. Razer mice are used by around 8% of
professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who work (human activity), works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the partic ...
first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...
gamers. In 2021, Razer introduced a new 8 kHz "HyperPolling" technology to power the Razer Viper 8K. Razer announced its first gaming
smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...
, the Razer Phone, in November 2017, which marked the company's first steps into the smartphone business. In 2020, it launched the Razer Book, its first "mainstream" non-gaming
laptop A laptop computer or notebook computer, also known as a laptop or notebook, is a small, portable personal computer (PC). Laptops typically have a Clamshell design, clamshell form factor (design), form factor with a flat-panel computer scree ...
. In April 2022, Razer partnered with the
deep learning Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that focuses on utilizing multilayered neural networks to perform tasks such as classification, regression, and representation learning. The field takes inspiration from biological neuroscience a ...
company Lambda to launch its first
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
-oriented laptop, Tensorbook, which targeted
machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...
engineers. In January 2021, Razer launched a range of high-grade designer masks as part of the company's initiative, Project Hazel, in a move to encourage more people to wear masks due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. The mask is designed to allow lip-reading by seeing facial cues when people talk, with LED lights to illuminate the wearer's face in dark environments. Project Hazel was later launched, renamed as the Zephyr in October 2021 as an N95-rated mask. However, it was discovered later in that year that it was not N95-rated, despite Razer claiming that it was; this caused them to update the language used in the page to saying that they are not N95-certified. In April 2024, a proposed settlement was announced by the
Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) United States antitrust law, antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. It ...
(FTC) that would require Razer to issue over $1.1 million in refunds to customers who purchased Zephyr masks, which the FTC alleges Razer made misleading statements about and failed to have tested by either the
Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respo ...
or the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The $1.1 million settlement was issued by the FTC in January 2025. In 2021, it also entered the gaming chair market with the Iskur, an in-house designed chair for gaming. Subsequently, they introduced the Enki, a chair marketed for "all day gaming" and comfort. In 2024, Razer introduced a new Razer Blade gaming laptop, which is the first gaming laptop to use Thunderbolt 5, an interface faster than its predecessor, Thunderbolt 4.


Razer Synapse

Razer Synapse is a tool that is pre-installed on laptops from Razer. It can also be downloaded from Razer's website. With the software, several functions of Razer products can be set, such as RGB lighting, polling rate, DPI, key profiles, tracking distance, and more.


See also

* List of computer hardware manufacturers * List of financial services companies *
List of largest technology companies by revenue A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
* List of mechanical keyboards * Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR)


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Razer Inc 1998 establishments in California American companies established in 1998 Singaporean companies established in 1998 Computer peripheral companies Consumer electronics brands Electronics companies established in 1998 Electronics companies of the United States Companies based in Irvine, California Computer hardware companies Computer systems companies Electronics companies of Singapore Video game companies of Singapore Companies of Singapore Video game hardware Companies formerly listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange 2017 initial public offerings Singaporean brands Mobile phone manufacturers Payment service providers