How Roblox uses AI models to run a $1.5 billion creator economy

This article summarizes an episode of Sourcery’s video series featuring David Baszucki, founder of Roblox.

David Baszucki, founder of Roblox/ Photo credit: Sourcery with Molly O’Shea

Building a system where millions of people interact simultaneously requires more than just entertainment value. David Baszucki, founder of Roblox, argues that labeling his network solely as a game hides its true function.

He warns that failing to recognize the platform as a utility for human connection misses the next major step in global communication.

To support this scale of interaction, Baszucki believes that establishing simple economic rules leads to better digital products. By relying on a market operated by the creators themselves, the company builds an economy that sustains itself without constant corporate interference.

Building a professional economy

Relying on unpaid volunteers to construct large online worlds often produces uneven and unreliable work. To fix this, Roblox built a functional economy that turns casual players into paid professionals.

Baszucki notes, “The logic was people should be able to make a living doing this. And if they can make a living, they’ll make higher quality content.”

To illustrate the scale of their solution, Baszucki says that Roblox paid out US$1.5 billion in to its creators in 2025. He believes that providing a reliable income motivates creators to dedicate their time to producing better spaces.

Designing a realistic foundation
To support this professional content, those creators need a stable and realistic technical foundation. Traditional methods of creating games rely on preset actions and coding shortcuts, making the worlds feel less interactive.

Roblox avoids these limitations by requiring every digital object to follow strict laws of physics from the beginning. Baszucki explains this method, “When we started making cars in Roblox, they were actually running in a simulator. The wheel was on an axle.”

This focus on physical simulation means objects react naturally to user input without requiring creators to write additional code, which speeds up the development process.

Powering a worldwide system

Processing millions of these physics calculations while managing a global economy requires more than standard software. The company solves this technical barrier by operating its own custom cloud infrastructure rather than renting server space.

Baszucki explains, “The most underrated aspect of Roblox is arguably how much deep tech and theories around economics and systems sit underneath it.”

He points out that supporting this realistic foundation and financial market relies on three main technical pillars:

Protecting the growing network