Two of China’s AI darlings are—according to media reports, at least—headed for an IPO.
Moonshot AI, the Pink-Floyd inspired startup behind Kimi, is reportedly preparing a Hong Kong listing within six months. The startup is close to finalizing a funding round that values the startup at just over $30 billion–and then, according to Bloomberg, will immediately turn around and try to raise even more money.
The Beijing-based developer just released K3, a 2.8 trillion-parameter model that’s topped several AI benchmarks and shrinks the gap with U.S. frontier models even further. Moonshot’s Hong Kong IPO also follows two of its peers, Minimax and Z.ai, which both debuted in the Chinese city in early January.
DeepSeek, the Hangzhou-based developer that’s perhaps China’s most respected AI lab–is also pursuing an IPO. But it’s instead aiming for Shanghai’s STAR market, the city’s Nasdaq-style tech board, with a listing as early as the second quarter of 2027.
The company doesn’t really need external funds: Its founder, Liang Wenfeng, runs High-Flyer, a quantitative hedge fund with deep enough pockets to bankroll years of AI research without outside capital.
