After Zhipu and MiniMax listed early this year, who becomes the third large-model company to list remains open, but the field of serious contenders is thin. Fresh reports say Moonshot has confidentially submitted its A1 filing to the Hong Kong exchange and launched its IPO process, raising a Pre-IPO round at a USD 50 billion pre-money valuation. Moonshot declined to comment.
It is not the only one planning a listing. StepFun was reported to target a Hong Kong listing by year-end, and DeepSeek is said to be preparing a mainland IPO that could be filed this year for a 2027 debut.
The fight for the capital and listing window
Alongside the IPO news, Moonshot is running a Pre-IPO round through a designated feeder fund at a USD 50 billion pre-money valuation, with a reported RMB 30 million minimum ticket. Its domestic entity has completed joint-stock reform and is preparing the Hong Kong listing, expected to file with the exchange in the third quarter. the latest reports say it filed confidentially this week.
Since late last year, as Zhipu and MiniMax listed, other foundation-model startups opened new financing. Moonshot has been the most aggressive. Public records show that after founder Yang Zhenlin announced a USD 500 million raise last December, it opened five rounds this year, with cumulative disclosed financing of USD 7.9 billion (about RMB 53 billion), drawing Alibaba, Tencent, Meituan, IDG and 5Y Capital. Its valuation leapt from USD 4.3 billion to USD 50 billion (about RMB 335.5 billion) in just eight months, more than tenfold.
In July, alongside a Series F above USD 3.5 billion, its domestic entity became a joint-stock company. Yang holds 51.83 per cent. with co-founders he holds 65.63 per cent. Nine state-backed institutions joined as shareholders in late June.
StepFun, with SenseTime founder Yin Qi now at the helm, also raised big: RMB 5 billion early in the year, nearly USD 2.5 billion in May and about RMB 600 million in strategic funding. DeepSeek, after a first round led by Liang Wenfeng with Tencent, CATL, NetEase, JD, IDG and the national AI fund totalling RMB 51 billion, is opening a second round of about RMB 50 billion at a RMB 500 billion pre-money valuation, the highest of any independent Chinese model firm, above Zhipu’s RMB 420 billion-plus and Moonshot’s RMB 330 billion-plus.
As one AI investor put it: “The window is narrowing. Everyone wants more bullets before it closes.”
The technology and commercial test behind the valuation
The basis for continued financing and rising valuations is still leading global technology plus accelerating commercialisation. Moonshot released K2.5, K2.6 and K3 in July, when K3 ranked third globally and first in front-end coding, driving a global surge that forced it to pause new-user subscriptions and seek compute expansion. Annualised revenue crossed USD 100 million in March, USD 200 million in May and USD 300 million by mid-June, with API revenue above 70 per cent across more than 180 countries.
The two listed peers also grew fast. MiniMax’s half-year revenue was USD 117 million, up 283 per cent year on year, with August annualised revenue above USD 800 million and B-end share above 80 per cent. Zhipu’s first-half revenue was USD 142 million, up nearly 400 per cent, with August annualised revenue at USD 1.6 billion and latest weekly above USD 2 billion. API revenue jumped 2,736 per cent, its share rising from 15 per cent to 86 per cent while local deployment fell below 8 per cent. DeepSeek’s disclosed data shows revenue about RMB 475 million through July, roughly ten times last year, implying annualised revenue above USD 500 million.
Model releases, Kimi K3, Zhipu GLM-5, DeepSeek-V4, MiniMax M3 and H3, each reshuffled the global and especially open-source landscape. But the lead rotates fast: K3, third globally and first in open source in mid-July, has since slipped to ninth, tied by GLM-5.3 in the open-source camp. Among the global top ten, eight are closed US models, Claude holds three, OpenAI and Meta two each including GPT-6 Astra and Muse Spark 1.3. open source holds only two Chinese seats, Kimi K3 and GLM-5.3.
The listed firms’ shares have come under pressure. Zhipu’s market cap fell from above HKD 1 trillion to about HKD 500 billion. MiniMax fell from above HKD 410 billion to about HKD 126 billion. The window will not stay open, and later IPOs face a tighter test of technology and commercialisation.
Editor’s note: This is an adapted translation of the original Sohu IT report. It has been trimmed and restructured for readability for an international business audience. The full original (in Chinese) is at https://www.sohu.com/a/1071912163_115565.
Translated and adapted from Sohu IT (https://www.sohu.com/a/1071912163_115565).