$3 billion, giants "race to board" Keling AI

On the evening of July 2, Kuaishou released an announcement stating that Kling AI’s nearly $3 billion financing round is close to being completed.

According to the announcement, on the same day, the company entity Beijing Keling signed agreements with 21 initial investors. The investors will inject approximately 13.8 billion RMB (about 2.28 billion USD) in cash into Beijing Keling, which—after restructuring—will take over the Kling AI-related assets and business of the Kuaishou Group.

At the same time, the agreement also provides that during the subscription period, 15 additional investors will inject 5.2 billion RMB (about 800 million USD) in cash into Beijing Keling.

Under the agreement, Beijing Keling has also reserved an additional subscription window: within 60 days from the date of signing (or extendable with the consent of investors holding over 50% of the subscription amount), new investors may participate in this financing round by signing an joinder agreement. However, the cumulative total capital increase amount from all investors must not exceed 204.471 billion RMB (about 30 billion USD), corresponding to 16.67% of Beijing Keling’s expanded registered capital. The joinder agreement will form part of the capital increase agreement.

It is reported that after this round of investment, Kling AI’s post-investment valuation is expected to reach 18 billion USD. This financing breaks the global record for the largest fundraising amount by a video foundation model company, marking the formal start of its independent commercialization development process.

This round of financing was co-led by CPE Yuanfeng, Guofang Venture Capital, BlueFive, Tencent, the Zhongguancun Science City Fund (in partnership with UNK Investment), and CITIC Securities, together with dozens of first-tier institutions. This financing round has brought together top industrial capitals such as Alibaba Cloud and Baidu, as well as active participation from leading cultural and entertainment industry players such as Huace Film and TV and Mango Industry Investors (Houwei Capital).

This financing round highlights the market’s strong interest in Kuaishou’s AI assets. The raised funds are expected to be used for technical R&D and ecosystem expansion for Kling AI’s business. Kuaishou said that introducing diversified strategic investors will help accelerate the commercialization rollout of AI foundation models in areas such as video generation.

Source: Shanghai Securities News

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