The Dark Side of the Moon (Moonshot) AI officially announces its final financing before its IPO launch! Valuation is nearing $50 billion, and it could be listed in Hong Kong as early as this year.

According to a report by Bloomberg, China’s AI unicorn Moonshot AI (Darkside of the Moon) is planning its final round of pre-IPO funding in August, targeting a valuation as high as $50 billion, with the earliest possible listing in Hong Kong within this year. Benefiting from the recent launch of what it claims to be the world’s largest open-weight model, Kimi K3, the company’s June annual recurring revenue (ARR) has surged to $300 million, with astonishing commercialization progress.
(Backgrounder: Crushed capacity! Kimi K3 hit its usage cap within 48 hours of going live, and Moonshot AI paused new subscriptions)
(Additional context: Moonshot AI is set to roll out Kimi K3! Featuring 2.8 trillion parameters and million-long context, with performance nearly on par with Anthropic Opus 4.8)

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• Valuation surges to $50 billion, speeding up the dismantling of the red-chip structure
• Kimi K3 shakes the market, with performance nearing OpenAI
• Commercialization advances rapidly, with ARR breaking through $300 million

As the pace of AI technology commercialization accelerates, top AI startups are heading into a frenzy of excitement in the capital markets. On July 21, 2026 (Taipei time), citing an exclusive report by Bloomberg based on sources familiar with the matter, it was revealed that China’s leading AI company Moonshot AI (Darkside of the Moon) is actively preparing to enter the public market, with both its fundraising speed and scale drawing industry attention.

Valuation surges to $50 billion, speeding up the dismantling of the red-chip structure

The report disclosed that Moonshot AI is currently wrapping up a funding round that will be launched this summer, with that round’s valuation already at $31.5 billion, and it is expected to be formally completed soon. Even more striking is the company’s plan that after closing this round, it will immediately begin negotiations for the “final funding round” with investors in August, aiming to raise the valuation to as high as $50 billion in one go.

This huge injection of funds is expected to be the company’s last capital infusion prior to its initial public offering (IPO). Sources said Moonshot AI aims to list in Hong Kong within this year at the earliest. To pave the way for onshore financing and the IPO, the company is currently accelerating the dismantling of its overseas red-chip structure, and related restructuring work is expected to be completed by the end of this month.

Kimi K3 shakes the market, with performance nearing OpenAI

What underpins this staggering jump in valuation is a major technical breakthrough the company has recently achieved. Last week, Moonshot AI formally unveiled its latest model, Kimi K3. This AI model, billed as the world’s largest “open-weight” AI model, is said to have an astonishing parameter scale of 2.8B trillion.

Industry assessments indicate that Kimi K3’s performance is already very close to the latest frontier models from U.S. giants such as OpenAI and Anthropic. This technical milestone not only significantly overturned the stereotype that “China’s AI development is far behind the United States,” but also became a core catalyst drawing intense attention from international investors and prompting the company to raise funds quickly on the back of momentum. For the founder, Yang Zhilin, a low-profile Carnegie Mellon University alumnus who worked at Meta and Google and is just 33 years old, this is undoubtedly a major success and recognition.

Commercialization advances rapidly, with ARR breaking through $300 million

While its technical strength has earned validation, Moonshot AI’s monetization capability is also equally impressive. According to data disclosed by Bloomberg, the company’s annual recurring revenue (ARR) in June this year has successfully reached $300 million. Compared with $200 million in April, it shows an extremely steep growth curve.

In addition, since the launch of the Kimi K3 model, the company’s daily sales have at least achieved a sixfold explosive increase. The strategy of quickly converting traffic into revenue after technical breakthroughs in a hot field—and advancing its capitalization process at a pace far faster than its U.S. peers—fully demonstrates the strong burst of energy of Chinese tech startups as they move from private funding to the public market. As of now, Moonshot AI has not yet issued an official response to the aforementioned financing and IPO rumors.