Report: Moonshot AI to release Kimi K3 open AI model within days

In short: A report says Moonshot AI will soon release Kimi K3, a large AI model that people and companies can download and use more freely than many paid rivals.

What happened

Moonshot AI, a Chinese AI lab, is expected to release a new model called Kimi K3 “in the coming days,” according to a Financial Times report cited by TechCrunch. The sources are anonymous, meaning the companies involved did not confirm it publicly.

The report says Kimi K3 could perform about as well as, or possibly better than, Anthropic’s Opus 4.8. Anthropic is a US company behind the Claude chatbot. These comparisons are usually based on standardized tests called benchmarks (think of them like exam scores used to compare different systems).

The Financial Times also said Kimi K3 would be the largest “open-weight” AI model from China. “Open-weight” generally means the core model files are shared so others can run it themselves, more like getting the recipe instead of only ordering the meal.

The same report says Moonshot AI is raising new funding that would value the company at about $31.5 billion. TechCrunch notes that Moonshot raised $2 billion in May at a $20 billion valuation.

Why it matters

If Kimi K3 is strong and widely available, it could give businesses a cheaper option than paying for closed models from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. It also adds fuel to an ongoing debate about data privacy, since some companies worry that information they send to paid AI services could be reused in ways they do not want.

For more on the company behind Kimi, see our directory page for Moonshot AI.

Source: TechCrunch AI