China artificial intelligence (AI) startup Moonshot AI, buoyed by the success of its open-weight model "Kimi K3," raised $3.5 billion (about 5 trillion won) in a recent funding round, far exceeding its initial target. The valuation was pegged at $35 billion.
On the 29th (local time), Bloomberg, citing multiple sources, reported that the amount raised far exceeded the original target of $1 billion to $2 billion. China's "National AI Industry Investment Fund" joined the round as a key investor. The fund also invested early last year in Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, which sparked the high-efficiency AI boom.
Moonshot AI is contacting potential investors with a goal of a $50 billion valuation in the next funding round. It is reportedly planning to conduct a final pre-IPO round before pursuing a Hong Kong listing as early as this year.
Moonshot AI has emerged as a key player in the global AI industry on the back of K3, unveiled this month. K3 has been evaluated as showing performance comparable to the latest models from Anthropic and OpenAI, and it has added to volatility in global AI and semiconductor-related stocks. In the market, there is growing assessment that, despite U.S. export controls on semiconductors to China and a shortage of high-performance AI chips, Chinese AI corporations have shown they can compete with the United States—another "DeepSeek moment."