Moonshot AI secures $60 B pre‑IPO financing at $500 B valuation

Chinese AI startup Moonshot (月之暗面) has launched a G‑round pre‑IPO financing round that values the company at roughly $500 billion. Sources say the round could raise close to $60 billion, with investors such as Hillhouse Capital and Sequoia expected to lead. The company aims to complete the financing by 15 August and plans to file an IPO with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in August, targeting about $30 billion in proceeds.

The financing follows the open‑source release of the company’s large‑model AI system Kimi K3, which the founder’s PhD advisor, Carnegie‑Mellon professor Russ Salakhutdinov, described as its most distinctive advantage. Salakhutdinov cautioned that the model’s true performance still needs broader real‑world testing. In parallel, Moonshot has secured a computing partnership with Alibaba, gaining access to roughly 20 000 Nvidia GPU chips to support its models.