HoYoverse is ready to invest nearly $15 billion in AI - the creators of Genshin Impact aim for their own technological empire

HoYoverse is reportedly preparing one of the largest AI gambles the games world has seen. Chinese sources say the studio may pour as much as $14.6 billion into building an AI ecosystem over the next three years (e.g., infra, automation, content gen, “smart” NPCs); the detail surfaced during a closed student event where co‑founder Liu Wei spoke.

This sounds less like tinkering with models and more like an attempt to remold the company into a tech behemoth — i.e., owning the whole AI development cycle rather than outsourcing pieces. Already, traces of that strategy appear in projects: Petit Planet will use AI for NPC behavior, the studio has discussed a “self‑developing autonomous AI civilization,” and some AI work was shown for Honkai: Star Rail.

Reactions are messy. The industry is fragile right now; layoffs and shrinking teams make any big technological pivot feel risky, even ominous. Players, creators, and staff worry about what happens when code starts doing jobs once done by humans — writers, artists, designers wondering where they fit. At the same time, HoYoverse is clear-eyed about risk: Liu Wei admitted there are no guarantees and said if it fails, it’ll be a “big firework.” Dramatic, yes — and such a blast could mark the start of serious, hard-to-predict shifts in how games are made and who makes them.