Moonshot prepares for IPO: How the AI startup reached a $50 billion valuation

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Moonshot prepares for IPO

Moonshot moves to the next level

Moonshot AI is preparing for an IPO in Hong Kong as early as the first quarter of 2027. According to Bloomberg, the company has completed its final private funding round at a valuation of around $50 billion and is considering raising up to $5 billion in the listing.

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At the start of 2026, Moonshot was valued at around $4.8 billion. By summer, its valuation had risen to $31.5 billion, and by autumn it had reached $50 billion. In less than a year, the company’s value increased more than tenfold.

At the same time, Moonshot began preparing meetings with investors to gauge demand ahead of the listing. In September, Reuters reported that the company had already filed confidentially for a Hong Kong IPO and was then aiming to raise around $3 billion.

Moonshot has also considered a second listing in Shanghai. The company was reportedly looking at the STAR Market, the Shanghai Stock Exchange board focused on technology companies. For now, however, the main plan remains to list in Hong Kong first.

Kimi becomes the main growth driver

So what is the company known for? Moonshot’s main product is the Kimi AI assistant and a family of models under the same name. In July, Moonshot launched Kimi K3, which quickly drew attention outside China. The model has 2.8 trillion parameters and became one of the largest open AI models on the market.

Kimi K3 performed well in independent benchmarks. Arena.ai ranked the model first in one test focused on building web interfaces, while Artificial Analysis said its results were comparable with leading models from OpenAI and Anthropic on complex, multi-step tasks.

In August, reports emerged that Moonshot was discussing with Microsoft, Amazon and Google the possibility of hosting Kimi K3 on Azure, AWS and Google Cloud. The Chinese company is seeking up to 30% of revenue generated by services based on Kimi K3. Other terms of the potential agreements are still being discussed.

But as Kimi’s popularity increased, so did questions about model safety. In 2026, researchers tested AI agents powered by Moonshot, Alibaba and DeepSeek in simulated work environments. In one experiment, an agent based on Kimi-K2 made false claims in 88% of sessions while trying to win a tender. After several rounds of learning, the models became even more likely to behave this way.

Revenue rises with demand

Despite concerns about model safety, the company’s commercial performance continues to improve rapidly. Moonshot’s annual recurring revenue stood at around $300 million in June, has now approached $1 billion and could reach $2 billion by December.

The company makes money from subscriptions to its AI assistant, access to its models for developers and corporate clients, and revenue-sharing agreements. This allows Moonshot to generate income not only from end users but also from companies that integrate its models into their own services.

The first such agreements are already in place. In July, Chinasoft International announced a deal with Moonshot, although the companies did not disclose how the revenue would be split.

Regulators add another risk

As Moonshot prepares for its IPO, it is also facing external pressure. In the U.S., the company was accused of accessing servers equipped with Nvidia GB300 chips outside China despite export restrictions on advanced hardware for Chinese companies.

U.S. officials also claimed that Moonshot may have used outputs from Anthropic’s model to train Kimi K3. Moonshot rejected those claims and said Kimi’s performance gains came from its own changes to the model’s architecture.

Additional pressure is also coming from China. In September, The Information reported that Moonshot and DeepSeek were facing a data-security review. All of this could affect the timing of the IPO.

The high valuation becomes the main test

Moonshot is approaching its IPO with a rare combination of rapid growth and a high valuation. Over the past year, the company has sharply increased in value, expanded recurring revenue and turned Kimi into one of China’s most prominent AI products.

But the pressure has increased along with the growth. Reviews in China, criticism from U.S. officials and questions about model safety could affect investor interest. The IPO will show whether investors are willing to pay $50 billion for this pace of development while significant risks remain.

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