Razer reportedly plans to build a phone for gamers, but needs more money

Razer is interested in building a smartphone for gamers, according to a report from Bloomberg. The company is planning an IPO in Hong Kong later this year that could value its business at $5 billion. It will reportedly use some of the funds to build its smartphone.

The news isn’t that surprising, given that Razer acquired the smartphone company Nextbit earlier this year. Razer said Nextbit would operate as an independent company at the time of the acquisition, but hasn’t said much publicly about it since.

There are a lot of questions left to be answered, including whether the gaming-centric smartphone will come out under the Nextbit or Razer brand, and whether the company can even sell enough of them to make it worthwhile. Razer isn’t planning to IPO until around October, so we likely won’t see this device until 2018 at the earliest.