(March 14): Moonshot AI is seeking to raise as much as US$1 billion (RM3.94 billion) in an expanded funding round that would value the start-up at about US$18 billion, more than quadrupling its valuation in just three months and underscoring growing interest in Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) developers racing to rival Silicon Valley leaders. In Hong Kong, rivals Zhipu and MiniMax Group Inc have recently traded at valuations between US$30 billion and US$40 billion, with MiniMax at one point surpassing Chinese internet incumbent Baidu Inc in market capitalisation. Moonshot was first among those to capitalise on the trend with the rollout of Kimi Claw, powered by its latest Kimi K2.5 model. Moonshot was founded by former Tsinghua University professor Yang Zhilin, who previously worked on AI projects at Meta Platforms Inc and Google. As Chinese model makers expand globally, they have attracted increasing scrutiny.

Source: The Edge Markets March 14, 2026 10:05 UTC