Kang Tao: The Smart-Gun Megacorp Behind Cyberpunk's Guided Bullets

Where Kang Tao came from#

In 2020 Kang Tao is a Taiwanese firm with a small, successful firearms division. Its pistols are cheap and reliable and show up all over Asia in the hands of gangers. Nobody is calling it a megacorp yet.

The change comes after the Fourth Corporate War. Asia is wrecked by war and unrest, and the rebuilding years are also an opening. In 2046 a former army colonel, Shiming Xu, is brought in to run what was considered a collapsing company propped up by government subsidies. After four years he relaunches it, debt-free and Chinese-based, with the A-22B Chao smart pistol.

Smart guns, explained#

A smart gun fires guided ammunition. Kang Tao's version uses gyrojet technology to launch caseless rounds, and the pitch is simple: you point roughly, the gun does the rest. The company calls it intelligence, which is a generous word for a gun that cannot be blamed for a miss.

In Cyberpunk 2077 the product list includes the A-22B Chao pistol, the G-58 Dian submachine gun and the L-69 Zhuo shotgun. Our weapons page goes through them. Kang Tao also sells weapon mods, armor, a recon grenade, and cyberware such as Optical Camo, Nano-plating and Scar Coalescer.

The 2077 corporation#

By 2077 Kang Tao is a top-tier weapons maker with government funding behind it. For twenty years its state-funded research facilities pushed it past old rivals, and since 2072 it had tripled its stock value, becoming a leading weapons exporter in Asia. It is also moving into mercenary and security work.

It is not a friendly neighbor. Relations with other corporations are strained because Kang Tao has made repeated efforts to steal from competitors. It has a reputation for negligence, with thousands of deaths tied to its operations. In 2077 an explosion at a company refinery in Hangzhou kills over 50,000, and although official accounts clear the corporation, many people blame it anyway.

In Night City it has a building in Corporate Plaza. Its slogan promises intelligence, and so far the intelligence has mostly been used on theft.

Kang Tao in Edgerunners#

Kang Tao steps forward in the Edgerunners sequel, where Arasaka is weakened and executives from the Chinese firm appear in the cast. Our Season 2 page covers the story, and the characters page lists who works there.

The sequel is set in 2078, one year after the game, and shows Arasaka losing influence while Kang Tao moves in. A corporation that already has government backing and a stock price on the rise is the obvious one to step into the gap.

Fixer's notes#

Opinion: Kang Tao is the most underrated megacorp in the setting. Arasaka gets the tower, Militech gets the army, and Kang Tao gets the better pitch: your gun does the aiming. That is a thing real people would pay for.

At the table, use Kang Tao as the quiet rival. It does not need a flashy villain, just a lawsuit, a leak and a suspiciously good prototype. See the megacorporations page for where it ranks, and note that it is in no hurry.