China’s Moonshot AI Raises $2B at $20B Valuation as Demand for Open-Source AI Skyrockets
Chinese AI companies may not be swimming in as much cash as their Western counterparts, but the demand for open-source models is still robust. Investors are taking notice.
Moonshot AI, a Beijing-based AI lab developing the popular Kimi series of open-weight large language models, has raised about $2 billion at a valuation of $20 billion, according to a post by Huafeng Capital, which advised some investors who participated in the round.
The round was led by Long-Z Investment, the venture capital arm of Chinese food delivery company Meituan. Also participating were Tsinghua Capital, China Mobile, and CPE Yuanfeng, according to the post.
Over the past six months, Moonshot AI’s annual recurring revenue topped $200 million in April, driven by rapid growth in paid subscriptions and API usage, per Huafeng Capital’s report. The company was valued at $4.3 billion at the end of 2025 and had more than doubled to $10 billion by early 2026 following a $700 million raise.
Moonshot AI was founded in 2023 by Yang Zhilin, a former Meta AI and Google Brain researcher. The company became one of China’s most popular AI labs after its open-weight Kimi K2.5 large language model took the coding world by storm earlier this year.
The company’s latest model, Kimi K2.6, is currently the second-most used LLM on distribution platform OpenRouter.
This fundraising comes as investor appetite for open-weight AI models made by Chinese labs surges. Moonshot’s annual recurring revenue topped $200 million in April, driven by rapid growth in paid subscriptions and API usage.
Key Takeaways
- Moonshot AI has raised $2 billion at a valuation of $20 billion, with its open-weight Kimi K2.5 model taking the coding world by storm.
- The company’s latest model, Kimi K2.6, is currently the second-most used LLM on OpenRouter.
- Some of Moonshot AI’s rivals have even gone public on the back of demand for their AI models, with Zhipu AI and MiniMax experiencing significant market caps in Hong Kong.
- Moonshot AI’s backers include Alibaba, Tencent, HongShan (formerly known as Sequoia China), ZhenFund, IDG Capital, and 5Y Capital.
Originally published at techcrunch.com. Curated by AI Maestro.
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