The Pokémon Company launched the Pokémon Trading Card Game AI Battle Challenge on 16 June 2026, asking developers to build AI agents that play the card game. It runs on Kaggle, together with Japan's Matsuo Institute and the game-AI company HEROZ, with support from Google, Google Cloud and Nvidia, Dexerto reports.
There are two competitions. In the Simulation track, open until 17 August, agents play each other automatically, with ten minutes per player per match. In the Strategy track, open until 14 September, teams also submit a report on their deck choice and decision logic.
The prize money sits with the Strategy track, as the official site explains: the top eight teams receive $30,000 each and move on to a second round, whose winner earns another $50,000 and runner-up $30,000. Every team in the second round also gets $3,000 in Google Cloud credits. In total that comes to about $320,000. Pokémon says it wants to advance data science, Wargamer writes – putting the card game alongside chess and Go as a benchmark for AI.