Chinese AI startup Moonshot AI has trained its massive 2.8 trillion parameter Kimi K3 model using a cluster of 20,000 Nvidia Hopper chips rented via Alibaba Cloud. The deal highlights how Chinese firms leverage cloud partnerships and Southeast Asian channels to access advanced US hardware despite tightening export controls. Amid these breakthroughs, Moonshot AI's valuation has surged to between $20 billion and $35 billion, even as the startup faces US scrutiny over alleged Blackwell chip access and model distillation.
Kimi K3 model specifications
- ▪Moonshot AI released the full model weights of Kimi K3 publicly, making it the world's largest open-source or open-weight AI model
- ▪Moonshot AI released the Kimi K3 model on July 17, 2026, as a 2.8 trillion parameter mixture of experts model with 104 billion active parameters and a context window of one million tokens
Alibaba cloud infrastructure provision
- ▪Moonshot AI secured access to approximately 20,000 Nvidia Hopper-generation chips through a cloud computing agreement with Alibaba Group to train and operate its Kimi models, including Kimi K3
- ▪Alibaba Group denied supplying Moonshot AI with Nvidia H200-based computing services, calling the claims groundless, but did not deny providing capacity supported by approximately 20,000 unspecified Hopper chips
- ▪Alibaba Group owns approximately 36% of Moonshot AI after participating in the startup's February 2024 funding round
Nvidia chip export controls
- ▪The Trump administration approved licenses in 2026 for some Nvidia H200 sales to Chinese companies, including Alibaba Group, though only a very small number had been shipped to China by July 2026
- ▪White House science and technology policy director Michael Kratsios accused Moonshot AI of acquiring restricted Nvidia Blackwell chips and using outputs from Anthropic's Fable model to train Kimi K3 through model distillation
Moonshot AI valuation growth
- ▪Moonshot AI's valuation estimates have risen from about $4.8 billion earlier in 2026 to between $20 billion and $35 billion, and the company is reportedly considering a Hong Kong IPO
- ▪Moonshot AI is working to unwind its offshore red-chip corporate structure before August 2026
Southeast Asia chip procurement
- ▪Moonshot AI is seeking additional Nvidia chips through Southeast Asia to train its next artificial intelligence model
- ▪A person familiar with Moonshot AI's procurement strategy confirmed the startup has a channel to access Nvidia Blackwell computing capacity through Southeast Asia, including a third party in Thailand
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