This photo shows Moonshot AI’s Kimi chatbot displayed on a smartphone.
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BEIJING – An Alibaba-backed AI startup is now valued at $4.8 billion in a new funding round, two people familiar with the deal said, just weeks after it was valued at $4.3 billion.
Moonshot AI is the company behind the Kimi chatbot, which skyrocketed in popularity in China months before DeepSeek was released last year.
Since the last moonshot in December, rival Chinese AI companies Zhipu and MiniMax have soared after listing in Hong Kong.
Moonshot is closing on a funding round that values the company at least $500 million higher than its December round, people told CNBC. Officials said the round is likely to close soon due to high demand.
Both requested anonymity to discuss personal information. Moonshot AI had not responded to a request for comment as of this article’s publication.
The people added that increased interest in China’s AI IPO candidates could push the company’s valuation even higher in subsequent rounds.
Chinese AI companies are growing particularly fast, even as U.S. AI chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT are not officially available in mainland China.
The Chinese government has restricted access to many U.S.-based internet services, while U.S. companies face increasing restrictions from the White House on doing business with China.
According to Chinese financial news outlet Late Post, the previous funding round was announced on December 31st and included participation from IDG, Alibaba, and Tencent.
Moonshot AI has not commented on its plans for an IPO.
Zhipu, which is publicly traded under the name Knowledge Atlas, had a market value of $13 billion as of Monday’s close, according to data from Wind Information. According to the data, MiniMax was valued at $15.2 billion.
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