Moonshot AI Closes $2B Funding Round at $20B Valuation as Kimi Models Rival OpenAI and Anthropic

Beijing-based Moonshot AI has raised approximately $2 billion at a $20 billion valuation, led by Meituan’s venture arm Long-Z Investments, with participation from Tsinghua Capital, China Mobile, and CPE Yuanfeng. The round brings total fundraising over the past six months to $3.9 billion, with the company’s valuation having risen from $4.3 billion at end-2025 to its current level.

Founded in 2023 by Yang Zhilin, a former Meta AI and Google Brain researcher, Moonshot quickly became one of China’s most prominent AI labs. Its open-weight Kimi models compete directly with ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, with Kimi K2.6 currently ranking as the second most-used large language model on distribution platform OpenRouter. Annual recurring revenue topped $200 million in April.

The raise reflects surging investor appetite for Chinese open-weight AI, as rivals DeepSeek pursues a $45 billion valuation and Zhipu AI trades publicly in Hong Kong at roughly $56 billion.