Moonshot AI

Moonshot AI is a Chinese artificial intelligence company focused on research and development of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Founded in 2023 by Yang Zhilin and others, its core product is the intelligent assistant Kimi, which supports long-context processing. The company has raised multiple funding rounds and is a significant player in China's AI sector.

Moonshot AI (月之暗面) was formally established in the spring of 2023, according to the company's own account on its official About page. The name was chosen as a deliberate metaphor: the far side of the Moon always faces away from Earth, and the company says it picked this name because it believes the truly important things lie at the edge of human sight. Its stated first principle is simple — to convert energy into intelligence — but it frames that conversion not as a cold computing race, but as an enduring inquiry into the upper bound of intelligence: how deeply a model can think determines how far humanity can go. From the outset the company positioned itself around general artificial intelligence (AGI) and around openness. On its About page it argues that AGI does not belong to any single company or any single land, and will eventually flow to every corner of the world; Moonshot AI says it wants to be among the first to light it up, through open models, a stubborn technological idealism, and a sincerity built together with tens of millions of users. It also states a belief that when intelligence truly becomes broadly accessible, humanity will gain unprecedented freedom — to imagine, to create, and to become more complete versions of itself. The company's research team states that it is dedicated to realizing AGI and to bringing the latest research to the global open-source technology community. Its public product line has centered on the Kimi assistant and on the underlying large models that power it. On the official homepage, Moonshot AI presents Kimi as a way to 'easily solve complex problems,' built on a new generation of large-model capability that enables deep research, one-click website building, intelligent spreadsheet generation, and autonomous PPT editing — turning complex work into something simpler. By the mid-2020s the company was publicly shipping successive model generations. The homepage lists Kimi K2.6 (dated 2026-04-20) and Kimi K3 (dated 2026-07-16), alongside a research item called PerceptionBench (also dated 2026-07-16). Kimi K3 is described as 'the new frontier of intelligence': 2.8 trillion parameters, natively multimodal, with a million-token context window, built for long-horizon coding, knowledge work, and deep reasoning. The company also distributes Kimi through an app (with a QR code for download), a browser plug-in, and desktop clients for macOS and Windows, and it offers an API for developers. Alongside product releases, Moonshot AI has cultivated a public-facing brand voice through Kimi Doodles — small illustrated marks tied to festivals, anniversaries, and topics — which the homepage describes as 'a pleasant surprise' that opens the Kimi multiverse with one click. Examples shown include Linux's 35th anniversary in August, the K3 launch in July, and Turing's Birthday in June, each accompanied by a short reflective note on openness, computation, and the origins of artificial intelligence.

• Moonshot AI is formally established

• Kimi K2.6 listed on the official homepage

• Kimi K3 and PerceptionBench announced

• K3 Launch featured as a Kimi Doodle

• Linux 35th anniversary Kimi Doodle

• Turing's Birthday Kimi Doodle

Focused on AGI research and development, providing an AI assistant with long-context processing capabilities.

• Kimi assistant

  The company's flagship AI assistant, presented on the homepage as a way to 'easily solve complex problems.' Built on a new generation of large-model capability, it enables deep research, one-click website building, intelligent spreadsheet generation, and autonomous PPT editing.

• Kimi K3

  Described on the homepage as 'the new frontier of intelligence': 2.8 trillion parameters, natively multimodal, with a million-token context window, built for long-horizon coding, knowledge work, and deep reasoning.

• Kimi K2.6

  A model generation listed on the official homepage under the date 2026-04-20, presented as capable of easily solving complex problems.

• PerceptionBench

  A research item listed on the official homepage under the date 2026-07-16, alongside the Kimi K3 announcement.

• Kimi API

  A developer-facing API offering, referenced on the homepage as '体验 API' (Experience API), allowing developers to build on Moonshot AI's models.

• Kimi App, plug-in, and desktop clients

  Kimi is distributed through a mobile app (with a QR code for download), a browser plug-in, and desktop clients for macOS and Windows.

• 2026

  Anthropic report alleges Alibaba, Moonshot AI and DeepSeek used Claude outputs without authorization to train their own models

  Anthropic said in a threat intelligence report released on September 10, 2026 that it detected and disrupted unauthorized large-scale 'distillation' of its Claude models by China-based AI labs including Alibaba, Moonshot AI and DeepSeek, which allegedly used Claude outputs to train and improve their own models such as Qwen and Kimi.

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• Naming the company after the far side of the MoonOther

• Adopting 'converting energy into intelligence' as a first principleOther

• Committing to open models and the open-source communityOther

• Building a multi-surface product distributionOther

• 2026-10-24

  Moonshot AI launches Kimi K3.1 Pro models[5]月之暗面发布 Kimi K3.1 Pro 系列模型finance.jrj.com.cn

  Reported: 2026-10-24

  Moonshot AI launched Kimi K3.1 Pro and the high-speed version Kimi K3.1 Pro Highspeed on October 24. It said the full model weights were planned to be made available before November 4.

• 2026-10-24

  Moonshot AI launches Kimi K3.1 Pro[6]Moonshot AI推出Kimi K3.1 Prosiliconangle.com

  Reported: 2026-10-24

  Moonshot AI introduced its Kimi K3.1 Pro large language model, which was available through the company’s paid cloud services at launch.

• Unconfirmed

  Moonshot AI reportedly plans mid-October release of Kimi K3.1 upgrade[7]月之暗面被指计划10月中旬发布Kimi K3.1升级版finance.sina.com.cn

  Reported: 2026-10-11

  According to information attributed to Nomura Securities, Moonshot AI's Kimi K3.1, an upgrade to the Kimi K3 flagship model, is planned for release in mid-October 2026, focusing on improving the model's ability to continuously execute long-duration Agent tasks; the team plans further optimization using post-training, computer-operation traces and real-task data.

• Unconfirmed

  Moonshot AI raises $500 million Series C funding[8]月之暗面完成5亿美元C轮融资itbear.com.cn

  Moonshot AI (月之暗面) completed a $500 million Series C funding round, with cash reserves exceeding 10 billion yuan, and stated it has no immediate IPO plans, prioritizing technology R&D and product iteration.

• 2026-09-10

  Anthropic alleges distillation attacks by China-based AI companies Alibaba, Moonshot AI, and DeepSeek[4]Anthropic report alleges Alibaba, Moonshot AI and DeepSeek used Claude outputs without authorization to train their own modelstechcrunch.com

  Reported: 2026-09-10

  Anthropic released a report alleging persistent distillation attacks by China-based AI companies including Alibaba, Moonshot AI, and DeepSeek, stating the campaigns targeted valuable Claude capabilities such as agentic tool use, coding, and logical reasoning.

• 2026-09-10

  Anthropic report alleges Alibaba, Moonshot AI and DeepSeek used Claude outputs without authorization to train their own models[3]Anthropic report alleges Alibaba, Moonshot AI and DeepSeek used Claude outputs without authorization to train their own modelscnbc.com

  Reported: 2026-09-11

  Anthropic said in a threat intelligence report released on September 10, 2026 that it detected and disrupted unauthorized large-scale 'distillation' of its Claude models by China-based AI labs including Alibaba, Moonshot AI and DeepSeek, which allegedly used Claude outputs to train and improve their own models such as Qwen and Kimi.

1. 1Moonshot AImoonshot.cn
2. 2About Moonshot AImoonshot.cn
3. 3Anthropic report alleges Alibaba, Moonshot AI and DeepSeek used Claude outputs without authorization to train their own modelscnbc.com
4. 4Anthropic report alleges Alibaba, Moonshot AI and DeepSeek used Claude outputs without authorization to train their own modelstechcrunch.com
5. 5月之暗面发布 Kimi K3.1 Pro 系列模型finance.jrj.com.cn
6. 6Moonshot AI推出Kimi K3.1 Prosiliconangle.com
7. 7月之暗面被指计划10月中旬发布Kimi K3.1升级版finance.sina.com.cn
8. 8月之暗面完成5亿美元C轮融资itbear.com.cn
9. 9参数直逼2.8T、支持百万上下文：月之暗面发布开源旗舰大模型K3.1 Prochinaz.com
10. 10China's Moonshot AI launches Kimi K3.1 Pro; plans full model weights release by November - The Economic Timeseconomictimes.indiatimes.com
11. 11Moonshot debuts first AI upgrade since its own DeepSeek momentthestar.com.my