(Oct 6): Moonshot AI has closed the final round of private fundraising at a valuation of about US$50 billion (RM204 billion) and is heading towards an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong in the first quarter of next year, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) champion has also begun laying the groundwork to start gauging investor sentiment through early-look meetings starting as early as this month, some of the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.
Moonshot is one of the biggest stars of China’s AI scene, bursting onto the global stage in July with the debut of Kimi K3, an open model that goes nearly toe-to-toe with leading platforms from the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic on some metrics. Its planned IPO is one of the most hotly anticipated deals in Hong Kong, where fundraising driven by the industry is setting fresh records. The company is considering raising up to US$5 billion in the deal, people familiar with the matter have said.
It is unclear how the valuation or the IPO timeline may be affected by tighter oversight of China’s AI industry after regulators opened a data-security probe into DeepSeek and Moonshot, according to The Information, adding to broader concerns over governance and safety.
Deliberations are ongoing and the timing of the IPO might still change, the people said. Moonshot representatives didn’t respond to requests for comment during a Chinese public holiday.
The company’s valuation has risen steadily through a series of fundraising efforts. A previous round this summer valued it at US$31.5 billion. Moonshot’s annual recurring revenue, a gauge of future sales, is expected to rise to US$2 billion by December from the current US$1 billion, people familiar with the matter have said. The company achieved US$300 million of ARR in June, Bloomberg News reported earlier.
The Beijing-based AI lab previously added Bank of America Corp as overall coordinator for the transaction alongside sponsor banks China International Capital Corp, Deutsche Bank AG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc, people familiar with the matter said previously. The company has filed confidentially for the IPO, they said.
Founded in early 2023 by Yang Zhilin, a former Tsinghua University professor who previously worked at Meta Platforms Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google, Moonshot counts Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, Tencent Holdings Ltd and 5Y Capital as its backers.
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