Moonshot AI eyes Q1 2027 Hong Kong IPO at $50 billion

Moonshot AI has rapidly become one of China's most prominent AI companies. It burst onto the global stage in July with the debut of Kimi K3, an open model that goes nearly toe-to-toe with leading platforms from OpenAI and Anthropic on some metrics. The company was founded in early 2023 by Yang Zhilin, a former Tsinghua University professor who previously worked at Meta Platforms and Alphabet's Google, and counts Alibaba Group Holding, Tencent Holdings and 5Y Capital as its backers.

Its valuation has risen steadily through a series of fundraising efforts: a previous round this summer valued it at $31.5 billion, and the latest round closed at about $50 billion. Its annual recurring revenue is expected to rise to $2 billion by December from the current $1 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The company has filed confidentially for the IPO and previously added Bank of America as overall coordinator for the transaction alongside sponsor banks China International Capital, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs Group.

The planned IPO is one of the most hotly anticipated deals in Hong Kong, where fundraising driven by the industry is setting fresh records. However, it is unclear how the valuation or the IPO timeline may be affected by tighter oversight of China's AI industry after regulators opened a data-security probe into DeepSeek and Moonshot, adding to broader concerns over governance and safety. Deliberations are ongoing and the timing might still change, the people said. The outcome likely hinges on how the regulatory probe unfolds and whether investor sentiment holds up during the early-look meetings.