Hong Kong can become AI literacy hub, industry leaders say

Chinese AI startup Moonshot AI, creator of the popular Kimi K3 model, is considering dual listings in Hong Kong and Shanghai to raise more capital and expand its reach, according to two sources. After discussing an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong with investors in July, Moonshot hinted at the possibility of listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's tech-focused Star Market at a later date, one source said.

The Shanghai Star Market has become a popular destination for Chinese tech companies, with recent interest from firms such as ChangXin Memory Technologies and Unitree Robotics, according to the second source.

The move towards dual listings may be driven by weaker performance of AI stocks in Hong Kong and the high volume of firms seeking to list in the city, the sources explained. Moonshot has filed a confidential IPO application for Hong Kong and aims to list as early as the first quarter of 2027, with a potential valuation of around US$50 billion, the South China Morning Post reported last week.

Competitors Z.ai and MiniMax are also in the process of separate Star Market listings, and both have experienced declines in their shares recently.

Before its Hong Kong IPO, Moonshot must complete the unwinding of its offshore structure, a variable interest entity (VIE), a process it informed shareholders in May would begin, but has not yet finalized, one source said. The IPO and funding plans indicate a swift fundraising pace as global competition intensifies in frontier AI models.

Moonshot gained attention in July for unveiling its Kimi K3 model, the world's largest open-weight AI model with over 2.8 trillion parameters. As of Thursday, it held the second position on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, behind Z.ai's GLM-5.3, but both models trailed over 10 closed-source systems from American AI labs Anthropic, OpenAI, and Meta Platforms.