Krafton plans to invest an additional $250 million in India over the next three to four years, expanding beyond gaming into artificial intelligence, robotics, and deep technology. The commitment raises the company's total direct capital deployment in the country to more than $500 million since 2021.
The new pledge is distinct from a $670 million India-focused growth fund Krafton established with South Korean conglomerate Naver and Mirae Asset in December 2025, to which Krafton contributed roughly $137 million at the initial close.
Krafton built its Indian business around gaming, launching the localized PUBG variant Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) in 2021 after the original PUBG Mobile faced a government ban. BGMI has surpassed 260 million downloads but faced its own regulatory suspension in 2022. The game returned on a trial basis in 2023 and Krafton plans to launch BGMI Lite by end of 2026.
To address New Delhi's concerns during the original ban, Krafton migrated servers to Microsoft Azure and removed Tencent Games as publisher—a costly but necessary move in a market where government relations shape survival.
Beyond BGMI, Krafton has backed roughly 18 companies in India, including four to five gaming studios and platforms like Nodwin Gaming, Loco, Pratilipi, Kuku FM, and One Impression. Last year it acquired Pune-based Nautilus Mobile, developer of the Real Cricket franchise. The company also launched KIGI Academy, an industry-academia program designed to deepen local ecosystem ties.
The pivot into AI, robotics, and deep tech reflects a deliberate capital allocation away from single-title dependency in a jurisdiction where regulatory approval is a core competitive moat. India offers over a billion internet subscribers and 700 million smartphone users—but scale alone has not insulated Krafton from policy risk.
The investment announcement followed a meeting between Krafton Chairman Chang Byung-gyu and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Friday, underscoring how closely gaming infrastructure investments in India remain tied to state relations.
