Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup Moonshot AI is launching a major funding round aimed at achieving a valuation of up to $50 billion (approximately 74 trillion won). This move reflects the increasing competition among Chinese AI firms in what has been termed a 'war of funds' against the United States.
According to reports from Chinese media on July 22, Moonshot AI plans to complete its current funding round, based on a valuation of $31.5 billion, within a few days and will immediately seek additional investments. The company is also considering a listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange within the next six months.
Following the successful launch of its latest AI model, Kimi K3, on July 16, Moonshot AI is actively working to secure funding to bolster its technological capabilities.
Industry experts believe that Kimi K3 has achieved performance levels competitive with top U.S. AI models from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. In fact, the AI performance evaluation organization Artificial Analysis has reported that Kimi K3 outperformed Anthropic's advanced model, Claude Opus 4.8, in certain benchmarks.
While U.S. closed AI models such as OpenAI's GPT, Google's Gemini, and Anthropic's Claude continue to lead the market, the recent releases of Kimi K3 and DeepSeek V4 in China are rapidly closing the performance gap with these top-tier models.
Chinese AI companies are actively seeking funding to ensure they do not fall behind in the AI race with the U.S., focusing on securing resources for model development, computing infrastructure, and talent acquisition.
The Wall Street Journal reported on July 22 that at least six Chinese AI startups are preparing for initial public offerings (IPOs) on the Chinese mainland or Hong Kong stock exchanges by 2027.
DeepSeek, a competitor of Moonshot AI, is a notable example. The company has raised over 50 billion yuan (approximately 11 trillion won) in its first external funding round and is currently pursuing a second round of investment. DeepSeek is also planning to debut on the Shanghai stock exchange next year.
Gary Tan, a portfolio manager at Allspring Global Investments, told the Wall Street Journal that the recent funding competition is driven by the substantial capital required for AI model development, computing infrastructure, and talent acquisition.
There are also concerns about potential additional regulations from the U.S. Currently, Chinese AI companies are allowed to use advanced semiconductors from Nvidia in data centers outside China. However, to prepare for possible future restrictions, these companies need significant funding to secure computing resources through contracts with overseas cloud service providers.
Earlier this year, the surge in interest in AI led to the successful listings of Chinese AI startups ZFWA and MiniMax on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Charu Chanana, a chief investment strategist at Saxo Markets, noted that AI supply chain-related companies raised over $10 billion in Hong Kong in the first half of this year.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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