Moonshot AI Files Confidential Hong Kong IPO to Raise $3 Billion

Beijing-based Moonshot AI confidentially filed an application this week for a Hong Kong initial public offering that could raise about $3 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

The start-up builds large language models and the Kimi chatbot. Its revenue mix includes paid subscriptions and API access, and people briefed on the company’s finances say annual recurring revenue exceeded $200 million in April.

Moonshot submitted a confidential listing application to the Hong Kong exchange as it seeks public capital. The company has grown its private funding rapidly this year: in May it raised about $2 billion at a valuation near $20 billion in a round led by Long‑Z Investments, the venture arm of Meituan. By July a later financing valued the company at roughly $30 billion, and subsequent discussions considered valuations as high as $50 billion.

The company released Kimi K3, an open-weight language model, which it says has performed strongly on several benchmarks and narrowed the performance gap with leading U.S. systems. Ryan Fedasiuk, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, described the technology gap as ‘weeks rather than months.’

Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo Markets, noted that capable, lower-cost open models could reduce the cost of developing AI applications and speed adoption in areas such as coding, customer service and industrial workflows.

Hong Kong has been a common listing venue for Chinese AI companies. Earlier this year Zhipu AI and MiniMax listed in the city, each raising several hundred million dollars. Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing recorded about $4.9 billion raised by AI-related companies across December and January and reported roughly 20 companies in the AI value chain in its listing pipeline.

Public investors have become more selective as valuations have risen and competition increased. Moonshot has not set a public timetable for the offering; the confidential filing begins its process under Hong Kong listing rules.