Moonshot AI
Founded by Yang Zhilin (Transformer-XL). Kimi chatbot with 2M token context. Backed by Alibaba, Tencent, Sequoia. Valued $18B+. Long-context models, consumer AI in China.
Moonshot AI, founded by Transformer-XL co-author Yang Zhilin, is aggressively shipping long-context models and consumer products. Backed by Alibaba and Tencent at an $18B+ valuation, it competes directly with OpenAI and Anthropic. Recent launches include the Kimi K2.5 and K2.6 models, Kimi WebBridge for agent-based browsing, and Kimi Slides—all riding on a 2M-token context window. The company's models are gaining inference speed benchmarks (Cerebras hit 981 tokens/sec on K2.6) and being licensed by Cursor for cost-effective coding. However, Moonshot faces fierce competition from NVIDIA's Nemotron and CoreWeave's inference optimizations. Its dependence on OpenRouter for distribution and Chinese tech giants for funding introduces strategic risk.
- ·Founded by Transformer-XL creator; backed by Alibaba, Tencent, Sequoia at $18B+ valuation.
- ·Competes with OpenAI and Anthropic via long-context models (2M tokens) and consumer tools.
- ·Recent shipments: Kimi K2.5, K2.6, WebBridge, Slides—all focused on agentic and productivity use cases.
- ·Models licensed by Cursor; Cerebras and CoreWeave racing to optimize inference speed.
- ·Dependence on Chinese investors and OpenRouter for distribution creates geopolitical and platform risk.
Signal Radar
Five-axis snapshot of this entity's footprint
Mentions × Lab Attention
Weekly mentions (solid) and average article relevance (dotted)
Timeline
20- PartnershipJun 13, 2026
Moonshot AI partners with state-owned bank to launch world's first AI-native credit card via Kimi
View source - Product LaunchApr 20, 2026
Released the open-source coding model Kimi K2.6, achieving top scores on SWE-Bench Pro and HumanEval with Tools benchmarks.
View source- benchmark scores:
- 58.6% on SWE-Bench Pro, 54.0% on HLE with tools
- Product LaunchApr 14, 2026
Released a trillion-parameter open-source model matching Claude Opus on coding benchmarks.
View source - Product LaunchApr 13, 2026
Teased upcoming 'Kimi 2.6' code model via leaked image, suggesting a major update to Kimi Chat.
View source - IpoMar 27, 2026
Exploring Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO)
- exchange:
- Hong Kong
- FundingMar 27, 2026
Exploring new private funding round of up to $1 billion at $18 billion pre-money valuation
- amount:
- $1B
- valuation:
- $18B
- Product LaunchMar 24, 2026
Launched Kimi Slides, an AI tool that converts notes into investor-ready presentations
View source- product category:
- presentation_generator
- target market:
- investor_presentations
- Research MilestoneMar 16, 2026
Introduced Attention Residuals technology to mitigate deep-layer information loss in LLMs
View source - FundingMar 16, 2026
Secured over $700 million at a $10 billion valuation earlier this year
- amount:
- $700 million
- valuation:
- $10 billion
- FundingMar 14, 2026
Raising up to $1 billion at an $18 billion valuation, quadrupling its worth in three months.
View source- amount:
- $1 billion
- valuation:
- $18 billion
- FundingFeb 28, 2026
Reached a $10 billion valuation in a previous funding round.
View source- valuation:
- $10 billion
- FundingFeb 24, 2026
Achieved a $10 billion valuation in just over two years since founding
View source- amount:
- $10B
- round:
- Valuation milestone
- Regulatory ActionFeb 24, 2026
Allegedly participated in systematic extraction of Claude's capabilities through model distillation techniques
View source - Regulatory ActionFeb 24, 2026
Identified by Anthropic as orchestrating model distillation attack on Claude
View source - LawsuitFeb 23, 2026
Allegedly participated in coordinated distillation campaign to copy Claude's capabilities
View source- method:
- distillation via fraudulent accounts
- FundingFeb 17, 2026
Seeking $10 billion valuation in expanded funding round backed by Alibaba and Tencent
View source- amount:
- $10 billion
- round:
- expansion
- investors:
- Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.,Tencent Holdings Ltd.
- FundingJan 1, 2026
Secured over $700 million at a $10 billion valuation earlier in 2026
- amount:
- $700 million
- valuation:
- $10 billion
Relationships
18Developed
Invested
Competes With
Uses
Frequently appears with
10Entities that show up in the same articles — shared coverage, not a stated relationship.
Recent Articles
5Moonshot AI, State Bank Launch First AI-Native Credit Card in China
+Moonshot AI's Kimi launches world's first AI-native credit card with state-owned bank, converting spending into compute credits.
90 relevanceNVIDIA Nemotron 3 Ultra: 550B Open-Weight Model Challenges GLM, Kimi
~NVIDIA released Nemotron 3 Ultra, a 550B open-weight model claiming near-SOTA performance, competing with GLM-5.1 and Kimi K2.6. No benchmarks yet.
87 relevanceCerebras Hits 981 Tokens/sec on 1T-Parameter Kimi K2.6, Claims 6.7× GPU Cloud Speedup
+Cerebras reported 981 tokens/sec on the 1T-parameter Kimi K2.6 model, a 6.7× speedup over the next GPU cloud, validated by an independent third party.
93 relevanceMoonshot AI's Kimi WebBridge Lets Agent Use Your Logged-In Sessions
+Moonshot AI released Kimi WebBridge, a browser extension that lets its Kimi agent use your logged-in sessions. This shifts from sandboxed agents to id
92 relevanceCursor's Composer 2.5 matches Opus 4.7, GPT-5.5 at fraction of cost
+Cursor's Composer 2.5 scores 79.8% on SWE-Bench Multilingual at $0.50/M tokens, matching Opus 4.7 and GPT-5.5 at 30x lower cost.
95 relevance
Predictions
No predictions linked to this entity.
AI Discoveries
2- observationactive1d ago
Lifecycle: Moonshot AI
Moonshot AI is in 'active' phase (1 mentions/3d, 2/14d, 27 total)
90% confidence - hypothesisactiveFeb 17, 2026
H: Chinese AI companies (Tencent, Baidu, Moonshot) will announce major GPU procurement deals within 30
Chinese AI companies (Tencent, Baidu, Moonshot) will announce major GPU procurement deals within 30 days, following Meta's lead, creating supply chain pressure on NVIDIA.
15% confidence
Sentiment History
| Week | Avg Sentiment | Mentions |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-W17 | 0.53 | 3 |
| 2026-W20 | 0.30 | 1 |
| 2026-W21 | 0.43 | 3 |
| 2026-W23 | 0.10 | 1 |
| 2026-W24 | 0.70 | 1 |