Krafton, the South Korean gaming giant behind PUBG: Battlegrounds, just announced a massive $70 million bet on artificial intelligence that could reshape how games are made. The company's new 'AI First' strategy includes building a massive GPU cluster and implementing agentic AI across all operations, signaling a fundamental shift in how one of gaming's biggest players plans to compete in an AI-driven future.
Krafton just fired the starting gun on what might be gaming's biggest AI transformation yet. The PUBG creator announced it's going 'AI First' with a staggering $70 million investment in GPU infrastructure that puts it in the same league as tech giants pivoting their entire business models around artificial intelligence.
The Korean gaming powerhouse isn't just dabbling with AI tools - it's betting the company on them. According to internal documents translated from the company's press release, Krafton will spend over 100 billion Korean won building a massive GPU cluster designed to power 'agentic AI' systems that can automate complex workflows across game development.
But the hardware is just the beginning. Krafton's committing another ₩30 billion annually - roughly $22 million - to retrain its entire workforce around AI tools. The company's also restructuring its HR and organizational operations to support what it calls an 'AI-centered management system.' It's the kind of top-down transformation that suggests Krafton sees AI not as a productivity boost, but as an existential necessity.
The timing couldn't be more telling. While Krafton's making this announcement, EA is facing a potential private buyout where investors are specifically betting that AI-based cost cuts will significantly boost EA's profits, according to the Financial Times. It's becoming clear that gaming executives see AI as both an opportunity and a threat - embrace it or get left behind.
Krafton's strategy mirrors moves we've seen from tech companies like Shopify and Duolingo, which have already made AI central to their internal operations. But gaming presents unique challenges. Unlike e-commerce platforms or language learning apps, games require creative content at scale - exactly the kind of work where agentic AI systems could either revolutionize production or completely replace human creativity.
The company's targeting completion of its AI platform by the second half of 2026, focusing on 'AI workflow automation' and 'in-game AI services.' That second part is particularly intriguing - it suggests Krafton isn't just using AI internally, but planning to integrate AI-driven features directly into games like PUBG and its upcoming life simulation game InZOI.
