Chinese AI start-up Moonshot AI is on the verge of reaching a valuation of over $3 billion. This would make it the highest valued start-up among China’s top AI companies, known as the Four New AI Tigers. The latest funding is being led by a local venture capital fund that backs Moonshot AI, and Tencent Holdings, a major player in Chinese social media and video gaming, has also joined the round as a new investor. Moonshot AI’s rapid appreciation in valuation is largely attributed to the success of its Kimi chatbot product.
Moonshot AI, also known as Yuezhi Anmian in Chinese, was founded just a year ago but has already gained significant attention in the industry. Its Kimi chatbot, built on the company’s own Kimi large language model (LLM), has been praised for its ability to handle long text queries and responses. When it was first launched, Kimi could process up to 200,000 Chinese characters in a single conversation. This made it capable of comprehending and answering questions on book-length documents. In March, Moonshot expanded Kimi’s capabilities further, allowing it to support up to 2 million Chinese characters.
Moonshot AI believes that the ability to process long prompts is crucial for the future development of AI. This, coupled with the fact that Kimi was initially offered as a free service, led to a surge in its popularity. It quickly caught up with Baidu’s AI chatbot, Ernie Bot, in terms of user traffic. In April, Kimi was ranked as the second most popular Chinese AI chatbot, with over 20 million visits to its website and apps. This placed it one spot above Ernie Bot, which attracted 16.91 million visits during the same period.
The high demand for Kimi’s services prompted Moonshot AI to announce that it would start charging for faster response times. This move aims to address the needs of users who require quicker and more efficient interactions with the chatbot. With its impressive valuation and growing user base, Moonshot AI is set to make a significant impact in the field of AI and chatbot technology.
Moonshot AI’s success is a testament to the growing importance of AI in various industries. As AI continues to advance, the ability to process and comprehend large amounts of information will become increasingly valuable. Moonshot AI’s focus on developing a chatbot that can handle such tasks opens up a wide range of possibilities, from customer service and virtual assistants to data analysis and research. With continued investment and innovation, the potential for AI applications is limitless.
According to Yang Zhilin, the founder of Moonshot AI, the company’s goal is to push the boundaries of AI development. The success of Kimi is just the beginning, and Moonshot AI aims to continue expanding its capabilities and offering new and innovative solutions. As the AI landscape evolves, Moonshot AI is positioning itself as a leader in the industry, ready to tackle the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. With a valuation of over $3 billion within reach, Moonshot AI is definitely a company to watch in the coming years.
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