Kimi K3: Largest Open-Weight AI Model Released by Moonshot AI

The largest open-weight AI model ever built is now publicly available. Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 was released tonight at 00:00 UTC. Here's the thing: this model has 2.8 trillion parameters, making it the largest open-weight model ever released. Its full weights are about 1.4 terabytes. What's interesting is that this release allows any developer or company with hardware to download, modify, and build on Kimi K3 without needing permission from Moonshot. The timing of this release is significant. A US official recently accused Moonshot of copying Anthropic's Fable model to create Kimi K3. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that sanctions are a possibility. However, some researchers note that Fable only became public on July 1st, which would make it difficult for Kimi K3 to have been built this quickly through distillation. The bottom line is that a 2.8-trillion-parameter model available for free download changes the competitive landscape for many AI labs.