Kuaishou's video AI arm Kling is in early talks to raise more than $2 billion（約3200億円） from General Atlantic, a rare US investment in Chinese generative AI amid US–China tensions.

What happened: Kuaishou Technology is in discussions with General Atlantic to lead financing for Kling AI, its video generation service, at a post-investment valuation of $18 billion（約2.9兆円）. Kling aims to raise more than $2 billion（約3200億円） and is being carved out ahead of a planned initial public offering in 2027.

Why it matters: General Atlantic, an early backer of ByteDance, would be making a rare bet on Chinese generative AI at a time when US–China tensions are high over AI technology. The timing is sensitive: the US government recently ordered Meta to unwind a $2 billion（約3200億円） acquisition of a Chinese agentic AI platform over geopolitical concerns, and prior US venture investments in Chinese AI startups have drawn criticism from lawmakers.

What to watch: Negotiations remain at an early stage with no guarantee a deal will proceed at those terms. Kling competes with ByteDance's Seedance and other Chinese video AI tools that are aggressively pursuing global monetization following OpenAI's shutdown of its Sora service.