Moonshot AI seeks $2 billion in new funding round that would value the Beijing-based chatbot developer at $30 billion

Moonshot AI, developer of the Kimi chatbot, is seeking as much as $2 billion in a new funding round that would value the startup at $30 billion. The company has held early talks with prospective investors to raise more than $1 billion and is on the verge of closing a round led by Meituan that valued the firm at $20 billion.

If Moonshot hits its latest funding target, that would mark a seven-fold increase in capitalization from December, when the startup was valued at just over $4 billion. The funding represents the startup's third financing in six months.

Moonshot is emerging as one of the best-funded Chinese AI research labs. The latest fundraising would help Moonshot eclipse publicly listed peer Minimax Group, which commanded a market value of about $20 billion as of Monday, though both still lag Zhipu's approximately $80 billion and the roughly $50 billion that DeepSeek is seeking in its debut funding round.