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Moonshot AI – creator of Kimi K3 model – has filed for Hong Kong IPO: sources
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Ben Jiangin BeijingPublished: 9:00pm, 3 Sep 2026Updated: 9:02pm, 3 Sep 2026
Chinese artificial intelligence start-up Moonshot AI – developer of the leading Kimi K3 model – has confidentially filed for an initial public offering in Hong Kong, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, as the firm seeks to tap public markets to fund its rapid expansion.
The Beijing-based company was targeting a Hong Kong listing as early as the first quarter of 2027, the sources told the South China Morning Post, asking not to be identified as the information was private. The timeline remained subject to regulatory approvals and market conditions, they added.
Moonshot said it “doesn’t comment on market rumours or speculation” in a response to a query sent by the SCMP on Thursday.
The company was also looking to undertake a final financing round ahead of the IPO, which could value it at around US$50 billion, the people said.The IPO and financing plan indicate the company is looking to accelerate fundraising as China’s AI labs step up competition with leading developers in the United States.
Moonshot made headlines in July with the release of its Kimi K3 model: the world’s largest open-weight AI model with more than 2.8 trillion parameters, which refers to the sophistication of AI systems with larger sizes usually indicating stronger capabilities.
The release of K3 sent shock waves across the US AI industry, as the model approaches the performance of leading proprietary systems in Silicon Valley while maintaining the price edge offered by Chinese open-source models.AdvertisementSelect VoiceSelect Speed00:0000:001.00x