Export controls went after China’s chips. They never touched the capital, and Moonshot is reportedly seeking $5bn.

Moonshot AI is arranging a confidential Hong Kong IPO that could raise up to $5 billion, with Bank of America as overall coordinator and CICC, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs as co-lead managers. Its 2.8-trillion-parameter Kimi K3 model was trained on Nvidia H200 accelerators delivered via Alibaba’s cloud, showing that U.S. export controls affect chips but not financing. The IPO targets a valuation near $30 billion, later suggested at $50 billion, far exceeding the combined $1 billion raised by recent Chinese AI listings Zhipu and MiniMax.