Chinese AI firm Moonshot releases open-weight model K3

Moonshot AI released an open-weight model called Kimi K3 last week. The 2.8 trillion parameter system outperformed all rivals except Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 and OpenAI’s GPT-5.6, the company stated. Demand for the model was high enough that sign-ups were paused over the weekend.

Users noted strong performance in coding and natural language tasks, along with improved long-context handling compared with some U.S. models.

The release triggered a sell-off in chip-maker and big-tech shares that erased trillions in market value, Bloomberg reported. Moonshot separately told investors it reached $300 million in annual recurring revenue in June and is completing a funding round that could value the firm above $30 billion.

The company is preparing for a public listing as early as six months from now. Moonshot was co-founded in 2023 by Yang Zhilin, who previously worked at Google, Meta and Huawei.

versus closed models Open-weight models allow anyone to download, run or modify the trained files. Moonshot’s K3 differs from closed offerings by OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, which are available only through paid APIs. The company’s API pricing for enterprises is in line with competitors.

Consumer access is offered through the Kimi chatbot under tiered subscriptions. K3 has shown that open models can match closed systems on high-value tasks such as coding and agent development, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.