KRAFTON

크래프톤 / 주식회사 크래프톤

A South Korean game publisher integrating AI-native characters, on-device inference, and internal AI infrastructure into its global live-service franchises to enhance player engagement and development workflows.

KRX: 259960
Profile as of September 13, 2026
#121 in the AsiaAI Tech Index
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KRAFTON's franchise cash generation finances AI and content expansion, while its revenue base remains heavily tied to PUBG. Its AI technology depends materially on external suppliers such as NVIDIA, limiting its contribution to core AI infrastructure while offering meaningful consumer reach.

Key figures

Revenue FY2025: Korean won 3.3266 trillion
Revenue growth FY2025: 22.8%
Operating margin FY2025: 31.7%
Net income FY2025: Korean won 733.7 billion
R&D spend: Not disclosed
Capital expenditure: Not disclosed
Market capitalization 2026-09-04: Approximately Korean won 9.3 trillion Estimate
Mobile share of revenue FY2025: 52.3%
PC share of revenue FY2025: 35.6%
Internal GPU cluster value 2025: Approximately Korean won 100 billion
inZOI copies sold 2025: Exceeds 1 million

Overview

KRAFTON was founded in 2007 as Bluehole Studio and renamed in November 2018. It operates as an independent listed game publisher and holding company based in Seoul, South Korea. The company builds and operates global games, generating the majority of its revenue from the PUBG intellectual-property franchise across mobile, PC, and console platforms.

It expands its portfolio through internal development, initiating 15 new first-party projects in 2025, and through acquisitions, such as the Japanese advertising and animation firm ADK Holdings and a majority stake in Neptune Company.

KRAFTON's structural position is that of a consumer-facing software and entertainment provider rather than a core infrastructure vendor. It leverages its massive installed player base and live-service operating experience to test and deploy new interactive technologies, including AI-native characters and automated development workflows, directly to end users.

The AI angle

KRAFTON supplies AI-enabled game experiences rather than AI infrastructure. Its primary AI product is PUBG Ally, a co-playable character that communicates and cooperates with players in PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS. It uses an on-device small language model enabled by NVIDIA ACE technology. KRAFTON initially presents the capability in PUBG Arcade mode and intends to refine it through player feedback before broader implementation.

The company also operates an internal GPU cluster valued at approximately Korean won 100 billion. KRAFTON uses this cluster for large-scale creative experiments and an integrated development-and-deployment environment, including model training and game implementation. Furthermore, KRAFTON is developing a proprietary five-billion-parameter foundation model through a consortium with SK Telecom.

It describes the model, AI development-and-deployment system, agentic-AI workflow automation, and co-playable characters as parts of an "AI First" operating strategy. AI demand reaches revenue indirectly, as KRAFTON does not disclose a separate AI revenue segment. Instead, AI is intended to increase engagement, differentiate titles, improve development productivity, and support new game experiences across its existing franchises.

Technology and moat

KRAFTON's central differentiated asset is not a proprietary semiconductor, foundation model, or game engine. It is the combination of PUBG's global franchise, live-service operating experience, multiplayer telemetry, proprietary game content, and the ability to test AI behavior with a large player community.

PUBG Ally is designed as an AI teammate able to communicate and cooperate during game play. That implementation problem is more demanding than a text chatbot because it requires low-latency interaction, game-state awareness, safety controls, voice interaction, tactical behavior, and player acceptance.

NVIDIA supplies the most clearly identified enabling AI technology through NVIDIA ACE. KRAFTON's advantage lies in integrating that capability with its own game context and service operation, rather than owning the core inference hardware or base AI platform. This makes the AI feature commercially relevant but technologically more replicable than a foundry process, GPU architecture, or proprietary foundation model with broad external demand. Its internal GPU cluster and SK Telecom consortium provide a path to reduce dependence on externally hosted generic AI tooling.

Five-pillar assessment

Scale and market position: A profitable global game publisher with Korean won 3.3266 trillion in FY2025 revenue, driven primarily by the massive PUBG franchise and mobile distribution.
Technology and R&D: Integrates on-device small language models and NVIDIA ACE into live games, supported by an internal GPU cluster and a five-billion-parameter foundation model.
Supply-chain centrality: Partners with NVIDIA for AI-character technology and SK Telecom for foundation-model development, while competing with Tencent, NetEase, and Epic Games.
Financial momentum: Strong top-line growth of 22.8% in FY2025, though operating profit declined amid development investments and net income was affected by asset impairments.
Governance and quality: Independent public company with founder-led board oversight, exposed to regional game regulations and mobile-platform dependencies.

Supply chain and relationships

KRAFTON depends on NVIDIA for the ACE software and NVIDIA-compatible client hardware that enable its on-device co-playable character approach. It also relies on cloud and GPU capacity, game engines, distribution platforms, player hardware, and its own game telemetry and content pipelines. Specific GPU procurement quantities, cloud suppliers, semiconductor suppliers, game-engine licence terms, and upstream model providers are not disclosed.

On the customer side, KRAFTON sells primarily through platform ecosystems and game-service channels rather than directly to enterprise clients. It does not publicly identify its largest game customers by name. Its publicly reported platform revenue mix shows mobile as the largest category, accounting for 52.3% of total FY2025 revenue, followed by PC at 35.6%. This heavy reliance on mobile platforms exposes the company to the policies and fee structures of major app-distribution storefronts.

Partners

NVIDIANVIDIA ACE for PUBG Ally and RTX Spark optimization
SK TelecomConsortium for five-billion-parameter foundation model

Competitors

TencentInferredCompetes for global and Asian game players
NetEaseInferredCompetes in online and mobile game publishing
NexonInferredCompetes in Korean and global online games
NCSoftInferredCompetes in Korean online and mobile game publishing
Epic GamesInferredCompetes for PC and console player time

Geopolitics and risk

KRAFTON faces significant regulatory exposure in China and other East Asian markets. Online games in these regions are subject to strict licensing, content, youth-protection, data, and monetization rules that can delay releases or limit operating flexibility.

The company is also exposed to U.S.-China technology controls. While KRAFTON is not an exporter of controlled chips, restrictions on advanced AI hardware and software can constrain regional supply, raise infrastructure costs, or complicate partner ecosystems. Its reliance on NVIDIA's AI technology means its AI strategy depends partly on U.S. software and accelerator ecosystems, which are subject to export regulations.

Furthermore, the consolidation of ADK Holdings introduces foreign-exchange and operational-complexity risks associated with operating Japanese advertising and animation businesses.

Risk matrix
Risk	Severity	Why it matters
PUBG franchise concentration	High	FY2025 growth remains driven primarily by PUBG IP.
Mobile-platform dependence	High	Mobile accounts for 52.3% of FY2025 revenue, exposing it to store policies.
China and East Asia regulatory exposure	High	Online games face licensing, content, and youth-protection rules.
Reliance on NVIDIA AI technology	Medium	PUBG Ally depends on NVIDIA ACE and client-hardware support.
U.S.-China technology controls	Medium	Restrictions on advanced AI hardware can constrain regional supply.
AI safety and player-trust risk	Medium	Voice-capable CPCs create moderation, hallucination, and fairness risks.
Acquisition and integration risk	Medium	ADK consolidation adds integration and operational-complexity risk.
Foreign-exchange and investment-asset volatility	Medium	FY2025 net income is affected by investment-asset impairments.

Governance and ownership

KRAFTON is an independent South Korean public company listed on the KOSPI. It is not state-owned, and there is no identified evidence of state control, state-directed ownership, or a chaebol parent controlling the group.

Founder Chang Byung-gyu remains chairman and an executive director, while Kim Chang-han serves as chief executive officer. This separation places founder-level strategic influence with the chairman while executive management is led by the CEO.

KRAFTON's board governance includes a board of directors and an ESG committee, with Chang listed as an executive director, chairman, and ESG-committee member. The company operates with public financial reporting under K-IFRS standards, though detailed shareholder percentages and nominee or custodian analyses are not fully disclosed in its standard investor materials.

What to watch

Whether KRAFTON moves PUBG Ally from public testing into a durable commercial game feature.
Whether the company discloses measurable output from its five-billion-parameter foundation model with SK Telecom.
Whether the Korean won 100 billion GPU cluster expands and computing costs become visible.
Whether inZOI, Subnautica 2, MIMESIS, and new projects reduce economic reliance on PUBG.
Whether ADK produces sustained revenue and profit contribution after consolidation.
Whether FY2026 investment impairments and AI-development costs continue to pressure margins.

Recent developments

June 7, 2026Stated continued optimization of PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS and inZOI for NVIDIA RTX Spark.
February 23, 2026Appointed Kangwook Lee as Chief AI Officer.
February 9, 2026Reported FY2025 revenue of Korean won 3.3266 trillion and operating profit of Korean won 1.0544 trillion.
November 4, 2025Reported Q3 2025 revenue and established a GPU cluster valued at approximately Korean won 100 billion.
October 30, 2025Presented PUBG Ally, an NVIDIA ACE-enabled co-playable character using an on-device small language model.
October 23, 2025Announced transition to an 'AI First' operating model with agentic AI for workflow automation.

Coverage on AsiaAI.FYI

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About this profile

Compiled with AI-assisted research from company filings, market data, and published reporting as of September 13, 2026, then reviewed by AsiaAI.FYI. Figures marked Estimate are not company-reported. Check primary filings before relying on any number.

Confidence: B. Core revenue, operating profit, and strategic disclosures are well supported by company filings, while market capitalization is an external estimate and R&D or capital expenditures are not disclosed.

Main sources: KRAFTON investor-relations financial statements and earnings presentations; South Korea Financial Supervisory Service DART annual-report records; KRAFTON corporate press releases; NVIDIA developer material; board-governance disclosures; market-data reporting from Barron's.

All 51 sources

Position in the AI stack

Sits in the model-developer, enterprise-applications, and edge-devices layers by building game-oriented foundation models, agentic workflow tools, and on-device AI companions.

Legal name: KRAFTON, Inc.
Formerly: Bluehole Studio Inc.
Headquarters: Seoul, Republic of Korea
Founded: 2007
Founders: Chang Byung-gyu / 장병규
Kim Gang-seok
Park Yong-hyun
Leadership: Kim Chang-han / 김창한, Chief Executive Officer
Chang Byung-gyu / 장병규, Chairman and executive director
Employees: 2,118 (2025)
Ownership: Publicly listed
Listings: KRX: 259960
Business: Game publisher and holding company
Sector: Games & Media
Website: krafton.com