Moonshot AI Targets $2B ARR Driven by Kimi K3 Momentum, Bloomberg Reports

IT Home reported on September 11 that according to Bloomberg, propelled by the "breakthrough" success of its Kimi K3 model, Moonshot AI plans to increase its annualized revenue severalfold to $2 billion (IT Home note: currently approx. 13.456 billion RMB) by the end of this year, further piling pressure on competitors such as Anthropic and Zhipu AI.

According to people familiar with the matter, Moonshot AI recently told investors that its annual recurring revenue (ARR) in August surpassed the $1 billion threshold (currently approx. 6.728 billion RMB), a significant surge from $300 million in June (currently approx. 2.018 billion RMB).

Annual recurring revenue is used to gauge future sales performance, and the driver behind this rapid increase is the large language model Kimi K3, released in July. Upon its debut, Kimi K3 surged to the top of several performance benchmarks while costing far less than leading American rival products.

Some insiders revealed that as interest from consumers and enterprises in Kimi subscription services and Moonshot AI's online hosted models continues to climb, the company expects the pace of sales to double once again.

Moonshot AI is raising funds at a valuation of $50 billion (currently approx. 336.402 billion RMB) and could go public in Hong Kong as early as this year.

In addition, cloud service providers could emerge as a new source of revenue. Under the Kimi K3 licensing agreement, businesses commercially hosting Kimi K3 must enter into a separate agreement with Moonshot AI if their cumulative revenue exceeds $20 million within a 12-month period (currently approx. 135 million RMB).

Meanwhile, Reuters reported last month that Moonshot AI is in talks with Microsoft, Amazon, and Google regarding a 30% revenue-sharing arrangement.