Moonshot, the Beijing artificial intelligence company behind the Kimi large language model, has submitted a confidential application for a Hong Kong listing, according to people familiar with the matter. The planned offering could raise about $3 billion, one of the people said, making it a closely watched transaction among Chinese AI companies.
The company is working with advisers including Goldman Sachs, CICC and Deutsche Bank for the proposed share sale. The schedule remains dependent on regulatory clearance, while the final fundraising target and other financial terms may shift with market conditions, the people said.
Moonshot is also raising private capital at a valuation of about $50 billion, according to two separate people. That level is below the valuations cited for some larger Chinese competitors, including DeepSeek at roughly $74 billion and Z.AI, whose market value stands at about $66 billion.
Investor interest in Moonshot has been supported by demand for Kimi K3, the company’s latest model released in July, which has received favorable reviews. The startup has also held discussions with Microsoft, Amazon and Google over potential revenue-sharing arrangements that would let the U.S. cloud providers host the model, people previously said.
If completed, such an agreement would represent a significant commercial partnership between a Chinese AI developer and a major U.S. cloud platform.
The potential Hong Kong IPO comes as other Chinese AI companies prepare domestic listings. DeepSeek is targeting a late-2026 filing on Shanghai’s STAR Market, with a valuation goal of $71 billion to $74 billion and a possible market debut in the second quarter of 2027. Anthropic, by contrast, is aiming for an October 2026 IPO, underscoring different listing paths for AI companies in China and overseas.
