Wei Xie is the co-founder of ArenaX Labs (NRN Agents), a company focused on developing AI agents for gaming and other applications. ^[1]

Career

Xie began his career in traditional finance, working in mergers and acquisitions at Greenhill & Co. from 2009 to 2011. He joined OPTrust in 2011, holding various roles over a decade. These included associate portfolio manager in private markets, investment strategist, and director positions spanning strategic relationships, innovation, and the chief investment officer's office. From 2020 to 2022, he served as director and co-head of multi-strategy investments in the capital markets group, where he led the development of a crypto and digital assets investment strategy and helped incubate a machine learning–based trading program that scaled to approximately $750 million.

While at OPTrust, Xie and Brandon Da Silva began exploring NFTs during the 2021 market downturn. They viewed NFTs as flexible digital containers and started developing a model for tokenizing AI as intellectual property. Their thesis centered on integrating these models into games to enable a consumer-friendly interface for interacting with AI and discovering its market value. This idea formed the basis for their startup.

In April 2022, Xie became co-founder and chief operating officer of ArenaX Labs, an AI technology company building platforms for training and deploying learning agents. The company operates across AI, gaming, and robotics, with products including the NRN Agents SDK, a toolkit for behavioral agent training; SAI, a competitive research platform for AGI-related machine learning; and AI Arena, a PvP game where players train evolving AI agents through interaction. ^{[2] [3]}

Interviews

NRN Token

On the Game7 podcast GameSpot, Ronan Kir hosted Xie and Da Silva, co-founders of ArenaX (NRN Agents) and AI Arena, to discuss their gaming and Web3 entrepreneurial journey. They shared insights into their initial entrepreneurial fears, including uncertainties beyond their control and the pressure to ensure project security. Both had backgrounds in traditional finance, where they built trust working together since 2016, but this venture marked their first collaboration in entrepreneurship. They emphasized the importance of shared work ethics and complementary skill sets in choosing co-founders, as well as having clear expectations regarding the success of their business. Their conversation highlighted the complexities of building a startup in the Web3 space and the significant challenges that come with it, while also stressing the value of trust and moral alignment among founding members. ^[4]

Web3 x AI Gaming

In episode 121 of "Show Me the Crypto," hosts Wade Patterson and Oath Lonagram interviewed Da Silva and Xie from AI Arena at the Blockchain Futurist Conference. The discussion centered on the innovative approach AI Arena took by combining blockchain gaming with artificial intelligence, creating a platform brawler game where players train AI models to compete against each other. Da Silva and Xie shared insights into their backgrounds in asset management and their love for technology, which led them to explore opportunities in crypto and gaming. They addressed the skepticism surrounding Web3 gaming and highlighted the unique coaching aspect of their game, where players directly influence the AI's fighting capabilities, likening it to a parent-child relationship. The conversation also touched on the growing interest in AI since the release of ChatGPT and the founders' mission to democratize AI through engaging gameplay, ultimately aiming to make AI concepts more accessible to the general public. Additionally, they discussed the integration of blockchain technology, emphasizing the advantages it brings to the gaming experience. ^[5]

AI, Crypto, & Gaming

On Thinking on Paper, hosts Jeremy and Mark discussed AI and gaming with Xie. They explored how the company aimed to fuse artificial intelligence and blockchain into gaming through their AI Arena platform. Xie outlined ArenaX's dual offerings: "Arc," an AI gaming infrastructure for developing AI-based game experiences, and "SAI," a machine learning competition platform designed to identify and nurture AI talent. The conversation revolved around the evolving economic landscape influenced by AI and blockchain, the educational potential of gaming in fostering interest in AI, and the unique challenges of discovering AI talent outside traditional academic pathways. The theme emphasized creating human-like bots for enhanced gaming experiences and the broader implications for player engagement and learning. The discussion ended with reflections on human creativity's potential in an AI-driven future and the role of competition in problem-solving through gaming. ^[6]

ArenaX Labs

On the Behind the Blockchain podcast, Xie discussed ArenaX Labs's (NRN Agents) development of AI-powered gaming infrastructure and its flagship product, AI Arena, a game where players train AI to compete autonomously. Over the past three years, they built this platform, which is live on the mainnet, and is aimed at enhancing the Web3 gaming ecosystem using AI technology. Xie's career path included 15 years in traditional finance, where he led portfolio management and initiated crypto investments before shifting focus to the gaming industry. He emphasized the dynamic challenges of Web3, including managing stakeholder expectations while navigating a highly competitive and often unpredictable landscape, as most projects compete for user engagement and attention across different digital products. Xie encouraged those seeking careers in this field to immerse themselves in the community, identify gaps, and provide value, while also advising future founders to be adaptable and aware of the challenges the rapidly evolving industry presents. ^[3]

AI Gaming

In an interview with CoinDesk, Xie discussed AI Arena's mission to create an accessible and educational AI gaming experience. AI Arena aimed to merge gaming with AI training, allowing players to develop AI characters that could compete against one another, thus providing a unique blend of skill expression and creativity. Xie noted that players engaged with the platform, where they unintentionally learned about AI principles while enjoying gameplay. Despite the influx of users attracted by various interests such as novelty and Web3, the retention was primarily due to the captivating nature of the game. Xie anticipated that AI gaming would evolve into a distinct category, prompting discussions on fairness in competition as AI capabilities expanded. While acknowledging the current hype cycle surrounding AI, he emphasized the importance of increasing interest and education in the field to cultivate a more knowledgeable community. ^[7]