As Chinese AI startup Moonshot released Kimi K3, a new model touted to be almost as advanced as Claude Fable 5 or GPT 5.6 Sol, a major debate erupted on social media as to how this could have been the US's success and not China's, as Moonshot founder Yang Zhilin did his PhD from the US but then went back to China.

Moonshot's Kimi K3 beat Claude Fable 5 and GPT 5.6 in some benchmarks... and it's an open model.

“K3 stands as Moonshot AI's most powerful open-source coding model to date,” Moonshot AI wrote in a press release.

Kimi's K3 model has caught up to the American frontier.

Moonshot AI's latest model is impressing developers with its coding skills, low API costs, and open-weight strategy.

Kimi K3 beats latest offerings by US rivals on some benchmarks

US stocks take hit after China-based start-up's AI model debuts

With the release of its latest model, Moonshot AI is quickly catching up to U.S. firms Anthropic and OpenAI.