Moonshot AI, the Alibaba-backed Chinese AI startup, is closing a fresh funding round that values the company at $4.8 billion, up $500 million from just weeks earlier, according to two people familiar with the deal. The spike comes as rival Chinese AI companies like Zhipu and MiniMax go public in Hong Kong, signaling a broader investor appetite for homegrown AI alternatives to OpenAI's ChatGPT—which remains officially unavailable in mainland China. The accelerating valuation reflects a geopolitical shift reshaping the global AI landscape.
The funding round is expected to close any day now given the level of investor demand, the sources said. This is Moonshot AI's second major fundraise in less than two months. Back on December 31st, the startup closed a round with backing from IDG Capital, Alibaba, and Tencent, according to Chinese financial outlet LatePost. That round valued the company at $4.3 billion—making the new jump particularly striking in such a compressed timeframe.
Moonshot AI is best known for Kimi, its conversational AI chatbot that gained significant traction in China well before the shock launch of DeepSeek, which rattled global markets by releasing a powerful open-source model with minimal training compute last year. Kimi captured user attention by offering conversational capabilities in an environment where OpenAI's ChatGPT and other U.S.-based AI services face official restrictions under Beijing's internet controls.
What's remarkable about Moonshot's valuation surge is the timing. It coincides directly with momentum from rival Chinese AI startups hitting public markets. Zhipu, operating under the ticker "Knowledge Atlas," went public in Hong Kong and quickly achieved a $13 billion market cap by Monday's close, according to Wind Information data. MiniMax followed suit and reached a $15.2 billion valuation, creating visible benchmarks for investors evaluating Moonshot's potential. The public listings essentially created a roadmap showing how the market values Chinese AI innovation.
The geopolitical backdrop intensifies this dynamic considerably. Beijing has historically restricted foreign internet services, and the White House has tightened restrictions on U.S. companies doing business with China. This creates a protected market where domestic AI champions can flourish without direct competition from OpenAI, Google, or other Silicon Valley players. For investors, that translates to significant moat advantages—Chinese users can't simply switch to ChatGPT, meaning companies like Moonshot capture disproportionate attention and engagement.
