Alibaba-backed startup Moonshot AI valuation up $500 million: sources
Pictured here is Moonshot AI’s Kimi chatbot displayed on a smartphone.
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BEIJING — One Alibaba’sJust weeks after the deal was valued at $4.3 billion, the backed AI startup is now valued at $4.8 billion in a new round of funding, two people with knowledge of the deal said.
Moonshot AI is the company behind it. Some chat robotsDeepSeek grew in popularity in China months before its launch last year.
Since Moonshot’s previous event in December, rival Chinese AI companies — Zhipu and MiniMax — then went up Going public in Hong Kong.
Sources told CNBC that Moonshot has closed a financing round that will be valued at at least $500 million more than in December. Sources said the tour will likely close soon due to heavy demand.
Both asked to remain anonymous discussing private information. Moonshot AI did not respond to a request for comment at the time this article went live.
The company could be valued even higher in subsequent rounds due to increased interest in Chinese AI IPO candidates, the sources added.
Chinese AI companies have particularly boomed because US AI chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT are not officially available in mainland China.
American companies face increasing restrictions from the White House on doing business with China, as Beijing restricts access to many US-based internet services.
The previous funding round was announced on December 31. According to Chinese financial news outlet LatePost, this round included IDG, Alibaba and Tencent.
Moonshot AI has not commented on any IPO plans.
Zhipu, listed under the name Information Atlas, had a market value of $13 billion as of Monday’s close, according to Wind Information data. Data showed that MiniMax was valued at $15.2 billion.
