Kimi developer Moonshot AI valued at US$20b as it navigates China’s new IPO rules

Firm raised US$2 billion from investors including Meituan’s venture and China Mobile, taking total to US$3.9 billion in the last six months Chinese artificial intelligence start-up Moonshot AI has raised about US$2 billion in a new funding round, boosting its valuation to more than US$20 billion as it navigates Beijing’s new listing rules for companies registered overseas. The funding was led by Long-Z Investments, Meituan’s venture arm, and involved China Mobile. Over the past six months, Moonshot had raised a total of US$3.9 billion, according to a statement by the deal’s financial adviser HF Capital on Thursday. The Beijing-based company, best known for its Kimi chatbot, saw its annual recurring revenue (ARR) exceed US$200 million in April, the statement said. ARR is used to project a firm’s 12-month revenue by extrapolating earnings from a shorter period, like a month or a quarter. US AI start-up Anthropic’s ARR recently crossed US$30 billion. Moonshot’s valuation of US$20 billion “still has significant room for growth” as the market caps of its Hong Kong-listed peers Zhipu AI, traded as Knowledge Atlas Technology, and MiniMax, were much higher, according to HF Capital.

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