Kling AI lands $2.8B at $15B pre-money as Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu pile in

Kling AI, the generative video subsidiary of Chinese short-video giant Kuaishou, has secured commitments of roughly $2.8 billion in new capital at a $15 billion pre-money valuation. The financing was disclosed in a Hong Kong exchange filing and structured as a capital increase into Beijing Kling, the entity that will hold all Kling AI-related assets, with a cap of about $3 billion. At the current committed amount, the deal values Kling AI at approximately $17.8 billion post-money, rising to about $18 billion if the round is fully subscribed, making it the largest funding event to date for an AI video model developer.

The round is co-led by a consortium including BlueFive Capital, CPE Yuanfeng, Guofang Investment, Tencent and CITIC Securities, with strategic participation from Alibaba Cloud and Baidu alongside multiple state-linked funds and major Chinese commercial banks. Reports also highlight BlueFive Capital, CPE Yuanfeng and CITIC Securities as leading investors, with Alibaba Group, Tencent and Baidu joining the syndicate. This investor lineup brings together China’s three major internet platforms in a single AI video bet. The transaction will dilute Kuaishou’s ownership in Kling AI from full control to roughly 68%, and is part of a broader restructuring to spin Kling into an independent entity positioned for a Hong Kong IPO targeted around 2027.

Kling AI develops a text-to-video generation platform capable of producing high-quality, including 4K, video from prompts, and has rapidly scaled revenue. Kuaishou disclosures and subsequent analysis indicate Kling AI generated about 650 million yuan (~$96 million) in Q1 2026 revenue, up more than 300% year-on-year, with its annualised run rate reaching roughly $500 million by March. This combination of significant commercial traction and record-scale financing places Kling AI as one of the best-capitalized and fastest-growing AI video players globally, intensifying the competitive landscape against rivals such as Runway and other emerging video generation models.