Krafton bets another $250 million on India, moving from PUBG to AI and robotics

For a company that once had its flagship game banned in India, Krafton is behaving less like a scarred foreign investor and more like a true believer. On Friday, the South Korean gaming giant’s chairman, Byung Gyu Chang, sat down with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi, and the message was simple: another $250 million is coming. That pledge, spread over the next three to four years, pushes Krafton’s total planned investment in India past the half-billion-dollar mark — a remarkable pivot for a firm whose first big product in the country was kicked out in 2020.

The new money is not about more battle royale matches, at least not primarily. Krafton says it will pour these funds into artificial intelligence, robotics, and deep tech, building on the roughly $250 million it has already sunk into India since 2021. The meeting with Modi, according to the company, centered on turning India into a global hub for gaming, innovation, and emerging technologies. Chang’s own words, carried by PTI, framed it as a long-term bet on Indian talent and the country’s digital economy. Notably, this $250 million commitment is separate from the $670 million India-focused growth fund that Krafton agreed to in December 2025 alongside Naver and Mirae Asset, where Krafton pledged around $137 million at first close.

To understand why this matters, you have to remember just how rocky the road has been. In 2020, New Delhi banned PUBG Mobile along with hundreds of other Chinese-linked apps amid border tensions with Beijing. Krafton, which had licensed the game from China’s Tencent, was caught in the crossfire. Its response was a masterclass in localization: it rebranded the game as Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), moved servers to Microsoft’s Azure cloud, and brought in Tencent Games as the local publisher. The gamble worked. BGMI has crossed 260 million downloads, and India has become a cornerstone market for Krafton — not just for revenue, but for proving that a foreign gaming firm can survive and thrive under intense regulatory scrutiny.

Beyond the games themselves, Krafton has quietly built a venture portfolio that reads like a who’s who of Indian consumer tech. It has backed about 18 companies, including esports platform Nodwin Gaming, streaming service Loco, storytelling app Pratilipi, audio platform Kuku FM, and influencer marketing firm One Impression. Last year, it bought Pune-based Nautilus Mobile, the studio behind the popular Real Cricket franchise. It also launched KIGI Academy, an industry-academia program designed to train the next generation of game developers. This is not a hit-and-run strategy; it is a deliberate attempt to embed itself in the local ecosystem, both as an investor and as an employer of talent.

What does this say about the wider currents of Asian capital? For one, it shows that India’s regulatory environment, while unpredictable, is not scaring off serious long-term players. Krafton’s experience — from ban to billion-dollar commitment — is a case study in how multinationals can navigate political risk by going native. It also reflects a broader shift in how gaming companies see themselves. Krafton is no longer just a games publisher; it is a technology investor with interests in AI, robotics, and deep tech, and India is its laboratory for that transformation. The country’s massive young population, cheap data, and growing engineering talent make it an obvious testing ground for products that go beyond entertainment.

Looking ahead, Krafton has already signaled it will launch BGMI Lite in India by the end of 2026, targeting lower-end devices and smaller towns. But the bigger story is the one Chang brought to Modi’s office: a South Korean firm treating India as a strategic partner in the next wave of technology, not just a market to extract revenue from. For wealth watchers in Asia, this is a signal worth following. If a company that once lost its biggest product in India can double down to the tune of $500 million, it suggests the country’s digital economy has crossed a threshold of credibility. The next few years will show whether that confidence is rewarded — or whether the regulatory roulette spins again.