Moonshot AI Kimi K3: New Model Rocks Rival AI Stocks

Moonshot AI has launched Kimi K3, a new AI model that reportedly rivals leading systems. This 2.8-trillion-parameter model sent shares of Chinese AI competitors sharply lower on Friday. Kimi K3 is the largest open-weight AI model released to date. It features a 1-million-token context window and supports both text and images. While it ranks below some top models, it beat others in coding and general agent evaluations. The launch impacted markets, with Z.ai shares losing as much as 30% and MiniMax Group stock dropping up to 16%. Alibaba stock also fell 4%. Developers reportedly chose Kimi K3 ahead of all top U.S. models for front-end coding tasks in blind evaluations. Moonshot has priced its API near Anthropic's mid-range tier. An analyst noted that K3 raises the capability ceiling for China AI models. The full weights for K3 are set to be published on July 27th. This launch matters because it indicates a significant advancement in China's AI capabilities and is impacting the global AI market.