Moonshot Said to Eye Early 2027 IPO After Value Hits $50 Billion

Moonshot AI, a Chinese artificial intelligence company, has recently closed its final round of private fundraising, achieving a valuation of approximately $50 billion, according to sources familiar with the matter. The firm is set to go public in Hong Kong in the first quarter of 2027, with preliminary investor sentiment meetings already underway since this month, as per several unidentified sources.

Moonshot has emerged as a prominent figure in China's AI landscape, making its global debut in July with the introduction of Kimi K3, a model that competes closely with industry giants like OpenAI and Anthropic on certain metrics. The company's planned IPO is expected to be one of Hong Kong's most anticipated deals, with fundraising in the sector reaching record levels.

The company is considering raising up to $5 billion in this deal. The exact impact of increased regulatory scrutiny on China's AI industry, following data-security investigations into DeepSeek and Moonshot, is yet to be determined, with further discussions ongoing regarding the IPO timeline. Moonshot's valuation has been steadily increasing through multiple rounds of fundraising, with a previous round in the summer of this year valuing the company at $31.5 billion.

The company's revenue is anticipated to grow to $2 billion by December of the current year from the present $1 billion, as per sources familiar with the data. In June, the company reported an annual recurring revenue of $300 million, as reported by Bloomberg News. The Beijing-based company was founded in early 2023 by Yang Zhilin, a former Tsinghua University professor who had previously worked at Meta Platforms Inc. and Google's Alphabet Inc. Moonshot has secured backing from major investors including Bank of America Corp., China International Capital Corp., Deutsche Bank AG, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The company has filed confidentially for its IPO and is yet to respond to requests for comment due to a recent Chinese public holiday.