People walk past the Moonshot booth promoting its Kimi K3 AI model, during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China, July 17, 2026. [Photo/Agencies]

The Chinese startup called its AI model the “new frontier of intelligence.”

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

Chinese start-up Moonshot AI’s new Kimi K3 boasts a performance close to OpenAI and Anthropic’s latest models.

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.

By Christine Ji and Hannah Pedone