The Dark Side of the Moon "Not rushing to go public" but is talking to Goldman Sachs about a Hong Kong IPO! Valuation has already soared to $18 billion.

China’s Moonshot AI Startup Faces Dark Side: IPO in Hong Kong Under Preliminary Evaluation, Collaborating with CICC and Goldman Sachs. The company is also negotiating a new funding round of up to $1 billion, which would bring its valuation to approximately $18 billion after completion.
(Background: Cursor was caught using Kimi K2.5 training model! Deleted posts, official statements quickly changed)
(Additional context: Chinese PhD student in Henan founded MiniMax, building a $30 billion AI platform with less than 1% of OpenAI’s funding)

Moonshot AI founder Yang Zhilin stated in an internal email at the end of last year that the company had 10 billion RMB in cash and was “not in a rush to go public, as the decision will be in our hands in the future.” However, recent reports suggest the company is now in talks with Goldman Sachs and CICC about preparing for a Hong Kong IPO.

According to Bloomberg, Moonshot AI is still in the “initial evaluation” stage for going public, with no specific timeline set, and the process may not proceed. Both Goldman Sachs and a spokesperson for CICC declined to comment, and CICC did not respond.

In December 2025, Moonshot AI completed a $500 million Series C funding round, valuing the company at about $4.3 billion. Now, it is reportedly negotiating a new round of up to $1 billion, which could push its valuation to around $18 billion—more than quadrupling in just three months, which is quite impressive.

Not a Backdoor Listing, Going Through a Legitimate IPO

In December last year, rumors circulated that Moonshot AI was planning a backdoor listing, which the company publicly denied at the time. Now, there are reports of a formal IPO plan in Hong Kong.

Founded in 2023 by Yang Zhilin, Moonshot AI’s Kimi Chat Assistant is one of the most well-known AI products in China. Backed by investors including Alibaba, Tencent, IDG Capital, and 5Y Capital, the company gained significant attention. In March, the Kimi K2.5 model was involved in a licensing controversy when Cursor was found to have used it for training its Composer 2 model without public authorization, sparking controversy among developers.

Other Chinese AI startups in the same space have also gone public in Hong Kong, including:

• Zhipu AI: listed on HKEX on January 8, 2026
• MiniMax (Xiyu Technology): listed on January 9, 2026, with a market cap of about HKD 300 billion

These IPOs have fueled investor enthusiasm for China’s AI sector, leading to soaring private valuations for Moonshot AI. Many Western AI commentators believe that Chinese AI software and model companies have fewer options, resulting in valuation premiums for related startups. This also pushes these companies to go public quickly while funding remains favorable.