Moonshot launches Kimi K3, a 2.8‑trillion‑parameter model that challenges U.S. AI leaders

Key Points

• Moonshot released Kimi K3, a 2.8 trillion‑parameter large language model.
• Company claims Kimi K3 matches or exceeds all U.S. rivals except Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 and OpenAI’s GPT‑5.6.
• Model will be downloadable as an open‑weight release on July 27, free of licensing fees.
• Pricing set at a level comparable to Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet, despite high hardware demands.
• Kimi K3 reportedly outperforms Chinese competitor Z.AI on coding benchmarks.
• Leonid Mironov (Gavekal Capital) called it "the best Chinese model ever" and "brilliant."
• Open‑weight approach differs from open‑source; training data and architecture remain proprietary.
• Release follows U.S. State Department accusations of AI‑related IP theft against Chinese firms.