Moonshot AI secures $2 billion funding at $20 billion valuation amid rising interest in open-source AI

May 7, 2026

AI Summary

Moonshot AI, a Beijing-based company known for its Kimi series of open-weight large language models, has raised $2 billion, reaching a valuation of $20 billion. The funding round, led by Meituan's VC arm, reflects growing investor interest in open-source AI models in China, as the company experiences rapid growth in revenue and user adoption.

Moonshot AI raised approximately $2 billion, achieving a valuation of $20 billion, as reported by Huafeng Capital.
The funding round was led by Long-Z Investment, the venture capital arm of Meituan, with participation from Tsinghua Capital, China Mobile, and CPE Yuanfeng.
Over the past six months, Moonshot AI has raised a total of $3.9 billion.
Founded in 2023 by Yang Zhilin, a former researcher at Meta AI and Google Brain, Moonshot AI gained popularity with its Kimi K2.5 model, which performed competitively against models from OpenAI and Anthropic.
The company's latest model, Kimi K2.6, is the second-most used large language model on the OpenRouter platform.
Moonshot AI's annual recurring revenue exceeded $200 million as of April, driven by increased paid subscriptions and API usage.
Other Chinese AI companies, such as DeepSeek, are also seeking funding, with DeepSeek reportedly valued at around $45 billion.
Competitors like Zhipu AI and MiniMax have gone public, reflecting the strong demand for AI models in the market.
Moonshot AI's models compete with offerings from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and other major players in the AI space.
The company is backed by prominent investors including Alibaba, Tencent, and IDG Capital.

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Moonshot AI secures $2 billion funding at $20 billion valuation amid rising interest in open-source AI

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