Chinese artificial intelligence unicorn Moonshot AI raised US$500 million in its recent Series C funding round, surpassing start-up rivals MiniMax Group and Zhipu AI preparing for their IPOs. Moonshot AI’s valuation now stands at US$4.3 billion with more than 10 billion yuan in cash reserves, as reported by LatePost.

IDG Capital led the financing round with US$150 million, joined by Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings. Moonshot AI founder Yang Zhilin confirmed they are not rushing for an IPO like MiniMax and Zhipu AI, but did not rule out a potential listing in the future.

Competitors MiniMax and Zhipu AI plan to raise HK$4.19 billion and HK$4.35 billion respectively through their Hong Kong IPOs. Moonshot AI was praised in a US government report showcasing the depth of China’s AI industry, with its Kimi K2 Thinking model outperforming benchmarks set by OpenAI and Anthropic.

Moonshot AI’s Kimi K2 Thinking model has driven a fourfold increase in API revenue in overseas markets and a 170% growth in global paying users from September to November. The company is well-funded and not in a rush to go public, as stated by Yang in an internal letter.

Read more at Yahoo Finance: China’s Moonshot AI raises US$500 million in latest funding round: report