The valuation of the dark side of the month may reach $4 billion, and it is expected to go public in the second half of next year

According to multiple insiders, the company is in talks with top international investment institutions such as IDG Capital and Tencent for a new round of US dollar financing, with a valuation expected to soar to $4 billion. At the same time, there are rumors in the market that it plans to launch an IPO in the second half of 2026 after completing this round of financing.

According to insiders, the financing scale of Moon’s Dark Side is expected to reach $600 million, with a pre investment valuation of approximately $4 billion. If the negotiations go smoothly, this will be another milestone for the company after its $300 million financing in August 2024.

It is worth noting that the leading investor in this round of financing is not Tencent or overseas venture capital firm a16z, as previously rumored, but has turned to IDG Capital. Existing shareholders such as Tencent, Wuyuan Capital, and Today Capital also participated in the follow-up investment.

Not long ago, the Kimi K2 Thinking model released by the Dark Side of the Moon broke DeepSeek’s training cost record with a super low training cost of $4.6 million, surpassing GPT-5 on some open source model rankings and temporarily topping the world’s number one rankings, causing industry shock.

Despite the impressive performance of Kimi K2 Thinking, its gap with GPT-5 cannot be ignored. The latest evaluation from Stanford University’s AI Lab shows that Kimi’s coherence score in complex multi round conversations is 18 percentage points lower than GPT-5. How to break through the ceiling of Transformer architecture is still a challenge facing Chinese AI companies.

The official website of the Dark Side of the Moon has denied the specific timetable for an IPO in the second half of next year, but there are still informed sources indicating that preparations for its listing are underway. The company is in talks with investment banks to evaluate the possibility of a dual listing on the New York Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Standing at a new starting point with a valuation of 4 billion US dollars, the IPO journey on the dark side of the moon is not only a coronation of glory, but also a test of life and death. At this critical moment in the technology game between China and the United States, every move will affect the nerves of the global AI industry.

However, compared to OpenAI’s astonishing valuation of $500 billion, the valuations of Chinese AI companies are generally far apart. The valuation ceiling of $4 billion on the dark side of the moon is only 1/125 of its American counterparts.

The current revenue of Moon’s Dark Side mainly comes from B2B API calls and customized solutions, with a revenue of approximately 210 million yuan in 2023. By comparison, OpenAI’s quarterly revenue has exceeded $1 billion. However, compared to domestic peers, its pre investment valuation of $3.8 billion has surpassed most vertical unicorns and entered the first tier of China’s AI race.

After this round of financing, Kimi will become the third domestic large model manufacturer to leap into the 30 billion yuan club after MiniMax and Zhipu.

In addition, there are rumors that MiniMax, also one of China’s “Four AI Tigers”, has secretly submitted a Hong Kong stock prospectus in July, and Zhipu AI has also been revealed to be selecting underwriters. China’s new AI unicorns may gradually start a wave of IPOs.