Moonshot AI launched Kimi K3, a 2.8-trillion-parameter model the Beijing-based startup says rivals leading systems from OpenAI and Anthropic, sending shares of Chinese AI competitors sharply lower on Friday.
Kimi K3, a 2.8-trillion-parameter open-weight model, outperformed several leading U.S. systems on some benchmarks while pricing below top-tier American rivals
Bloomberg / Getty Images
Moonshot AI launched Kimi K3, a 2.8-trillion-parameter model the Beijing-based startup says rivals leading systems from OpenAI and Anthropic, sending shares of Chinese AI competitors sharply lower on Friday.
Kimi K3 is the largest open-weight AI model released to date, according to Moonshot. The model places below Anthropic's Claude Fable 5 and OpenAI's GPT 5.6 Sol in overall rankings, yet beat Claude Opus 4.8 and GPT 5.5 across coding and general agent evaluations. The model features a 1-million-token context window and native support for both text and images.
The launch rattled markets. Z.ai shares lost as much as 30% of their value in Hong Kong trading. That was the largest single-day decline the company has recorded since its January listing, according to Bloomberg. MiniMax Group stock dropped as much as 16%. Alibaba stock fell 4%. Bloomberg's Asian semiconductor index slid more than 6%, and Nasdaq $NDAQ 100 futures fell 2%.
Arena blind evaluations showed developers choosing Kimi K3 ahead of all top U.S. models on front-end coding tasks, and K3 matched GPT 5.6 Sol when ranked across Arena's general text category, according to Axios. Rather than undercutting the market, Moonshot has positioned the API near Anthropic's mid-range price tier, distancing K3 from the steep discounts that have defined most Chinese model releases, Axios reported.
Moonshot has set July 27 as the date for publishing K3's full weights, leaving developers without the ability to self-host or alter the model in the meantime. The company said the model is available now through Kimi.com, mobile apps, and its API.
The release landed as Chinese President Xi Jinping made his first appearance at China's premier AI summit. Xi urged nations to work together on AI, declaring that the technology "should not be a solo performance by a single country."
Kimi K3's launch follows OpenAI's broader rollout of GPT-5.6 Sol after the Trump administration approved general public access, ending weeks of restricted availability to government-vetted partners. Anthropic's most powerful model, Mythos 5, remains restricted to a narrow set of American organizations following a Commerce Department export control order.
Moonshot was founded in 2023 and raised $2 billion at a valuation above $20 billion in May. Backers include Alibaba and Tencent.
Join 500,000+ readers who start their day with Quartz.
By subscribing, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.