Beijing-based Moonshot, developer of the Kimi large language models, has confidentially filed for a Hong Kong initial public offering, three people with knowledge of the plans told Reuters (via The Straits Times), in what sources called one of the most anticipated near-term Chinese AI listings. One source said the company is aiming to raise about $3 billion. LatePost first reported the confidential filing on Sept. 2.
Bloomberg reported Friday that Moonshot is considering raising as much as $5 billion as soon as this year and has added Bank of America as overall coordinator alongside sponsor banks China International Capital Corp., Deutsche Bank, and Goldman Sachs. Size and timing remain subject to regulatory approvals and market conditions, the sources said.
Moonshot has been valued at about $50 billion in an ongoing funding round, two separate sources told Reuters, below peers such as DeepSeek (about $74 billion) and Z.AI ($66 billion market cap) in the same reporting. Investors include Alibaba, Tencent, IDG Capital, and HSG. A May raise of more than $2 billion from Meituan, China Mobile, and CPE brought total fundraising above $5.5 billion, according to a fundraising document seen by Reuters.
To clear the listing path, Moonshot unwound its offshore red-chip structure for an onshore China domicile before filing, sources familiar with the process said. The company did not immediately comment to Reuters. Its July Kimi K3 release (2.8 trillion parameters, open-weight) drew strong demand and strained compute, Reuters reported, while the firm has faced Western scrutiny over alleged use of restricted Nvidia chips and distillation claims it disputes. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said he might add Moonshot to a trade blacklist.
The filing puts another frontier lab on the public-market clock alongside Anthropic’s planned US listing path and Chinese peers Z.AI and MiniMax, which already listed in Hong Kong in 2026.