AI
Company Profile
Moonshot AI is a Beijing-based AI lab building large language models, best known for its Kimi chatbot and open-weight Kimi K series models.
Founded 2023Beijing, China$7B+ raised$35B valuation
Investors
AlibabaTencentHongShan (Sequoia China)IDG CapitalZhenFund5Y CapitalGaorong CapitalMeituan (Long-Z Investments)
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Funding & Valuation History
from our coverage| Date | Event | Amount | Valuation | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 8, 2026 | Moonshot AI Seeks $2B at a $30B Valuation -- China's Kimi Maker 7x's in Six Months | $2B | $2B | Story → |
Moonshot AI FAQ
- What is Moonshot AI's valuation in 2026?
- Moonshot AI was last valued at $35B in its most recent funding round.
- How much has Moonshot AI raised?
- Moonshot AI has raised approximately $7B+ in total funding to date.
- Is Moonshot AI publicly traded?
- No. Moonshot AI is privately held, last valued at $35B.
- Who are Moonshot AI's investors?
- Moonshot AI's investors include Alibaba, Tencent, HongShan (Sequoia China), IDG Capital, ZhenFund, 5Y Capital, Gaorong Capital, Meituan (Long-Z Investments).
Coverage Timeline
newest first- Aug 3, 2026AIAlibaba Undercuts Kimi K3 With a Cheaper Flagship Model→
- Jul 31, 2026REGULATIONLawmakers Press DoorDash on Its Use of Chinese AI Models→
- Jul 28, 2026REGULATIONNvidia's Huang Meets Lutnick Amid China Probe→
- Jul 28, 2026AIMoonshot Seeks More Blackwell Chips For Next Model→
- Jul 27, 2026AIKimi K3's Weights Reveal the Real Chip Demand→
- Jul 27, 2026AIMoonshot's Kimi K3 Ships as Largest Open-Weight Model Ever→
- Jul 26, 2026AIMoonshot AI Drops Record 2.8 Trillion-Parameter Kimi K3→
- Jul 26, 2026AITechCrunch Makes Sense of the Chinese AI Panic→
- Jul 24, 2026IPOThe Case For a Chinese AI IPO Wave Riding CXMT's Momentum→
- Jul 23, 2026REGULATIONWhite House Accuses Moonshot of Stealing Anthropic's AI→
- Jul 23, 2026REGULATIONWhite House Accuses Moonshot of Stealing Anthropic's Model→
- Jul 23, 2026IPOMoonshot Preps IPO Under Cloud of US Theft Accusation→
- Jul 23, 2026IPOChina's AI Labs Race Toward A Wave Of IPOs→
- Jul 23, 2026AIWhy Chinese Open-Weight Models Are Repricing the AI Moat→
- Jul 23, 2026REGULATIONMoonshot Accessed Banned Nvidia Chips via Thailand→
- Jul 23, 2026IPOMoonshot, DeepSeek Both Race Toward IPOs After Kimi Shock→
- Jul 22, 2026REGULATIONWhite House Accuses Moonshot of Stealing Anthropic's Fable→
- Jul 22, 2026AINvidia's Jensen Huang Defends Chinese AI Amid Kimi Panic→
- Jul 22, 2026AIMoonshot AI Targets $50B Valuation Before IPO$50B Pre-IPO Target→
- Jul 22, 2026BIG TECHJensen Huang Defends Chinese AI Amid Kimi K3 Panic→
- Jul 21, 2026REGULATIONBessent Threatens China Sanctions Over AI Model 'Theft'→
- Jul 21, 2026AIFrontier Labs and Robotics Keep Dominating Crunchbase's Unicorn Board→
- Jul 20, 2026BIG TECHChip Stocks Enter Bear Market as AI Rally Cracks-24% SOX drawdown→
- Jul 19, 2026IPOChina's Moonshot Plans Hong Kong IPO Within Six Months After Kimi K3 Shock$30B+ target valuation→
- Jul 17, 2026AIMoonshot's Kimi K3 Erases America's AI Lead$31.5B valuation (reported)→
- Jul 17, 2026REGULATIONXi Pitches China as AI Partner, Warns on Security→
- Jun 8, 2026FUNDINGMoonshot AI Seeks $2B at a $30B Valuation -- China's Kimi Maker 7x's in Six Months$2B→
All Coverage
AI
Alibaba Undercuts Kimi K3 With a Cheaper Flagship Model
Alibaba released a new flagship model priced below Kimi K3, its latest open-weight swipe at US frontier labs, extending a pattern of Chinese labs competing primarily on price rather than raw benchmark scores.
REGULATION
Lawmakers Press DoorDash on Its Use of Chinese AI Models
REGULATION
Lawmakers Press DoorDash on Its Use of Chinese AI Models
US House committee chairmen sent DoorDash a letter demanding information on its use of Chinese AI model Kimi K2.6, part of a widening congressional investigation into American companies' exposure to Chinese-built AI systems.
REGULATION
Nvidia's Huang Meets Lutnick Amid China Probe
REGULATION
Nvidia's Huang Meets Lutnick Amid China Probe
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met privately with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick as the Commerce Department investigates potential violations tied to Blackwell chip exports reaching China, including allegations Chinese lab Moonshot AI used export-controlled Nvidia chips via Thailand.
AI
Moonshot Seeks More Blackwell Chips For Next Model
AI
Moonshot Seeks More Blackwell Chips For Next Model
Chinese lab Moonshot AI is seeking additional Nvidia Blackwell chips to train Kimi K4, its next model, days after the White House accused it of illegally accessing banned GB300 chips through Thailand-based infrastructure.
AI
Kimi K3's Weights Reveal the Real Chip Demand
AI
Kimi K3's Weights Reveal the Real Chip Demand
Kimi K3's multi-terabyte memory footprint illustrates the real chip-and-memory demand behind claims that the semiconductor industry must grow tenfold for AI agents.
AI
Moonshot's Kimi K3 Ships as Largest Open-Weight Model Ever
AI
Moonshot's Kimi K3 Ships as Largest Open-Weight Model Ever
Moonshot AI released Kimi K3's full open weights, a 2.8-trillion-parameter model described as the largest open-weight release in history, requiring roughly 1.4 terabytes of memory to run.
AI
Moonshot AI Drops Record 2.8 Trillion-Parameter Kimi K3
AI
Moonshot AI Drops Record 2.8 Trillion-Parameter Kimi K3
Chinese lab Moonshot AI released the full open weights of Kimi K3, a 2.8 trillion-parameter model, roughly a day ahead of schedule, making it the largest open-weight model released to date.
AI
TechCrunch Makes Sense of the Chinese AI Panic
AI
TechCrunch Makes Sense of the Chinese AI Panic
A TechCrunch analysis argues the panic following Moonshot's Kimi K3 release reveals more about American AI-competitiveness anxiety than about the model itself.
IPO
The Case For a Chinese AI IPO Wave Riding CXMT's Momentum
IPO
The Case For a Chinese AI IPO Wave Riding CXMT's Momentum
Value Add Pulse analysis: CXMT's $8.6 billion Shanghai debut and the Moonshot/DeepSeek open-model rush suggest Chinese AI and semiconductor companies are finding a public-market window U.S. peers currently lack.
REGULATION
White House Accuses Moonshot of Stealing Anthropic's AI
REGULATION
White House Accuses Moonshot of Stealing Anthropic's AI
White House OSTP Director Michael Kratsios accused Moonshot AI of covertly distilling Anthropic's Fable model to build Kimi K3 and of accessing banned Nvidia GB300 chips through servers in Thailand, opening the door to sanctions.
REGULATION
White House Accuses Moonshot of Stealing Anthropic's Model
REGULATION
White House Accuses Moonshot of Stealing Anthropic's Model
White House OSTP Director Michael Kratsios accused Chinese lab Moonshot AI of covertly distilling Anthropic's Fable model to build its viral open-weight Kimi K3, a claim AI researchers say lacks supporting evidence.
IPO
Moonshot Preps IPO Under Cloud of US Theft Accusation
IPO
Moonshot Preps IPO Under Cloud of US Theft Accusation
Moonshot AI is advancing its own IPO preparations even as the White House publicly accuses it of covertly distilling Anthropic's model to build its viral open-weight Kimi K3, a claim Moonshot disputes and researchers say lacks public evidence.
IPO
China's AI Labs Race Toward A Wave Of IPOs
IPO
China's AI Labs Race Toward A Wave Of IPOs
Moonshot, DeepSeek, MiniMax and Z.ai are all pursuing or completing public listings within months of each other, a compressed wave of Chinese AI IPOs that resets how investors value the entire sector.
AI
Why Chinese Open-Weight Models Are Repricing the AI Moat
AI
Why Chinese Open-Weight Models Are Repricing the AI Moat
Kimi K3's 2.8 trillion parameters and Qwen 3.8-Max's 2.4 trillion, both claiming near-frontier performance at a fraction of the cost, are forcing investors to reprice what a durable AI moat actually looks like.
REGULATION
Moonshot Accessed Banned Nvidia Chips via Thailand
REGULATION
Moonshot Accessed Banned Nvidia Chips via Thailand
White House adviser Michael Kratsios accused Moonshot AI of accessing export-controlled Nvidia GB300 chips through servers in Thailand to train Kimi K3, circumventing export controls without importing hardware into China.
IPO
Moonshot, DeepSeek Both Race Toward IPOs After Kimi Shock
IPO
Moonshot, DeepSeek Both Race Toward IPOs After Kimi Shock
Moonshot AI is preparing a Hong Kong listing within six months and DeepSeek is targeting Shanghai's STAR Market by Q2 2027, as China's AI labs race toward public markets after Kimi K3's shock.
REGULATION
White House Accuses Moonshot of Stealing Anthropic's Fable
REGULATION
White House Accuses Moonshot of Stealing Anthropic's Fable
The White House accused Chinese AI startup Moonshot of illegally distilling Anthropic's Fable model to build Kimi K3, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said sanctions and Entity List designations remain on the table.
AI
Nvidia's Jensen Huang Defends Chinese AI Amid Kimi Panic
AI
Nvidia's Jensen Huang Defends Chinese AI Amid Kimi Panic
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang publicly pushed back on the panic sparked by Moonshot AI's cut-rate Kimi K3 model, arguing competitive Chinese open-weight AI is good for the overall compute market rather than a threat to it.
AI
Moonshot AI Targets $50B Valuation Before IPO
AI$50B Pre-IPO Target
Moonshot AI Targets $50B Valuation Before IPO
Moonshot AI plans to open talks in August for a final pre-IPO funding round targeting a $50 billion valuation, nearly 60% above the $31.5 billion round it is currently closing.
BIG TECH
Jensen Huang Defends Chinese AI Amid Kimi K3 Panic
BIG TECH
Jensen Huang Defends Chinese AI Amid Kimi K3 Panic
Nvidia's Jensen Huang told Axios that Wall Street has misread Kimi K3's threat, arguing cheap, open Chinese models expand demand for chips rather than destroy it, and that 'zero possibility' exists of China running US AI labs off the road.
REGULATION
Bessent Threatens China Sanctions Over AI Model 'Theft'
REGULATION
Bessent Threatens China Sanctions Over AI Model 'Theft'
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US could sanction China after finding what he called 'watermarks' of American LLMs embedded in Chinese models, directly naming distillation concerns around Moonshot AI's Kimi K3.
AI
Frontier Labs and Robotics Keep Dominating Crunchbase's Unicorn Board
AI
Frontier Labs and Robotics Keep Dominating Crunchbase's Unicorn Board
Frontier AI labs and robotics companies topped Crunchbase's new-unicorn count for consecutive months in 2026, with DeepSeek joining Chinese peers like Moonshot AI and StepFun in raising billion-dollar rounds this quarter.
BIG TECH
Chip Stocks Enter Bear Market as AI Rally Cracks
BIG TECH-24% SOX drawdown
Chip Stocks Enter Bear Market as AI Rally Cracks
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index has fallen 24% from its June record into a confirmed bear market after Moonshot AI's cut-rate Kimi K3 model undercut the thesis that frontier-adjacent AI requires frontier-level compute spend.
IPO
China's Moonshot Plans Hong Kong IPO Within Six Months After Kimi K3 Shock
IPO$30B+ target valuation
China's Moonshot Plans Hong Kong IPO Within Six Months After Kimi K3 Shock
Moonshot AI has told investors it plans to list in Hong Kong within six months at a valuation above $30 billion, accelerating its IPO timeline after Kimi K3 -- a 2.8-trillion-parameter open-weight model -- matched frontier US labs and briefly wiped hundreds.
AI
Moonshot's Kimi K3 Erases America's AI Lead
AI$31.5B valuation (reported)
Moonshot's Kimi K3 Erases America's AI Lead
Chinese startup Moonshot AI released Kimi K3, a 2.8-trillion-parameter open model that topped a leading benchmark ahead of Claude and GPT-5.6, prompting Axios to declare China has erased America's AI lead.
REGULATION
Xi Pitches China as AI Partner, Warns on Security
REGULATION
Xi Pitches China as AI Partner, Warns on Security
Xi Jinping pitched China as an AI partner to the developing world at a Beijing summit while warning against security overreach, a dual message landing the same week Moonshot's Kimi K3 topped US labs on a leading benchmark.
FUNDING
Moonshot AI Seeks $2B at a $30B Valuation -- China's Kimi Maker 7x's in Six Months
FUNDING$2B
Moonshot AI Seeks $2B at a $30B Valuation -- China's Kimi Maker 7x's in Six Months
Beijing's Moonshot AI, the lab behind the Kimi chatbot, is in talks to raise up to $2B at a $30B valuation -- its third financing in six months and a roughly 7x markup from December 2024. With ARR past $200M, it's now in the front rank of Chinese labs chasing OpenAI and Anthropic.