Moonshot AI

AI Models · Chinese Tech · Venture Funding

Funding

Moonshot AI reportedly nears $30B valuation in new funding round

The jump follows a $3.9B, six-month funding sprint that already lifted the AI lab past $20B earlier this year.

• Moonshot AI is reportedly finalizing a private financing round that could value the Kimi chatbot maker above $30 billion, ahead of a planned Hong Kong IPO.
• Founded in 2023 by Yang Zhilin, a former Google and Meta researcher, Moonshot AI built the Kimi assistant and just released the 2.8-trillion-parameter Kimi K3 open-weight model.
• The startup already raised about $3.9 billion over six months, led by Meituan Longzhu alongside state-backed investors including China Mobile, pushing its valuation past $20 billion before this newer markup.
• Annual recurring revenue jumped from $200 million in April to $300 million by June, as Kimi K3 became the first Chinese open-weight model to beat Anthropic's Opus on some benchmarks.
• The IPO push mirrors rivals Zhipu (Z.ai) and MiniMax, which each listed in Hong Kong first and then tapped follow-on share sales and convertible bonds worth billions more.
• Moonshot could file its Hong Kong listing application as soon as August or by September 30, with Goldman Sachs and China International Capital Corp reportedly in talks to advise.
• A $30B mark would be one of the fastest valuation re-ratings in China's AI sector, showing how quickly a single competitive model release can reshape fundraising leverage ahead of a public listing.