Between February and August of 2026, the pre-money valuation of Chinese startup Moonshot AI quintupled to US$50 billion, following a US$3.5 billion funding round that closed in late July, adding US$15 billion to its value in a single month. Moonshot AI and rival DeepSeek are currently the only two premium targets left in the primary market, one investor familiar with the company said, prompting a frenzy among investors. DeepSeek’s valuation is hovering near 500 billion RMB (US$74.5 billion), making it exceedingly difficult for new capital to squeeze in, while Moonshot AI is viewed as a bargain. With a Hong Kong listing anticipated within six months, private market funding has essentially transformed into a mad dash for early IPO subscriptions, the investor said. A Hong Kong broker told Caixin that Moonshot AI fits the current high perception and high sentiment for AI companies in the Hong Kong stock market, adding that its revenue is comparable to MiniMax Group Inc. and operates an overseas business, while its model capabilities are on par with or even higher than Z.AI Co. Ltd., formerly Zhipu. The catalyst for the valuation explosion was the July release of its Kimi K3 model, boasting 2.8 trillion parameters, which became the world’s largest open-weight model to date. Within 24 hours, it decimated global leaderboards, second only to Anthropic’s Fable 5