Moonshot AI targets $18B valuation as China's AI race heats up
What's the deal? Chinese AI startup Moonshot AI is seeking to raise up to $1 billion in a new funding round that would value it at $18 billion. The company, which makes the Kimi chatbot, began talks for the round after closing more than $700 million in early 2026 at a $10 billion valuation.
Why now? Moonshot's valuation has more than quadrupled in three months — up from $4.3 billion in late 2025, when it closed a $500 million funding tranche.
The catalyst: the breakout success of open-source agent OpenClawDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, which sparked a wave of competing launches across China's AI sector. Moonshot was first to capitalise, rolling out Kimi Claw powered by its Kimi K2.5 model. After the launch, its monthly sales exceeded its total revenue for all of 2025.
Investor appetite for Chinese AI is surging. Rivals Zhipu and MiniMax have recently traded at valuations between $30 billion and $40 billion, with MiniMax at one point surpassing Baidu in market capitalisation. Backers including Alibaba, Tencent, and 5Y Capital all increased their stakes at the $10 billion level.
What could go wrong? Moonshot was founded by Yang ZhilinDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a former Tsinghua UniversityDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → professor who previously worked on AI projects at Meta and Google. Despite that pedigree, the company still trails rivals Zhipu and MiniMax in commercialisation — even as its recent sales spike narrows the gap. It sells tiered subscription plans for Kimi and licenses its underlying technology to enterprise clients, but building a sustainable revenue base remains a work in progress.
There is also a reputational cloud hanging over the company. In February 2026, AnthropicDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → accused Moonshot — along with DeepSeek and MiniMax — of illicitly extracting outputs from its Claude model to improve their own products, a practice known as distillation. If the allegation gains traction, it could complicate Moonshot's global ambitions.
The signal: The frenzy around Moonshot reflects a broader shift: Chinese AI startups are no longer just catching up — they are competing seriously with Silicon Valley. Moonshot is part of a cohort of Chinese model makers attracting both massive capital and increasing scrutiny as they expand globally. The race is global, and the valuations show investors believe the winners haven't been decided yet.
Sources:
Bloomberg
South China Morning Post
The Edge
PYMNTS
Image credit:
Moonshot AI
J.V.
