Moonshot’s upcoming Kimi 3 is expected to close the gap with Anthropic’s Opus 4.8

In Brief Posted: 7:26 AM PDT · July 16, 2026 Dominic-Madori Davis Moonshot's upcoming Kimi 3 is expected to close the gap with Anthropic's Opus 4.8 The latest iteration of Chinese AI lab Moonshot AI's Kimi model series is expected to perform at par with or even surpass Anthropic’s Opus 4.8, Financial Times reported , citing anonymous sources. Moonshot's Kimi K2 models have been received well in the open source AI market, ranking high on benchmarks and demonstrating capabilities that aren't too far behind the latest frontier models. The company's upcoming release, called Kimi K3, is said to take this one step further to close the gap with closed-source models from the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic. FT reports Kimi K3 will be the largest open-weight AI model from China, with a parameter count between 2 trillion and 3 trillion, and will be released "in the coming days." Moonshot is also said to be raising fresh capital in a round that would valuate it at $31.5 billion. The company in May raised $2 billion at a $20 billion valuation . The news comes amid a fresh debate on the value of paying AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic for their expensive, closed-source models. Industry leaders fear that AI labs will somehow manage to extract the data their clients submit for use with their AI products like ChatGPT and Claude. Executives are pitching their own products as alternatives, or recommending companies take cheaper open source models, like those developed by DeepSeek, Z.ai, or Moonshot, and train them for their own purposes. The argument has gained momentum, especially as open models from China close the gap with their more expensive, frontier counterparts. Topics AI , Anthropic , China , In Brief , moonshot November 4 Boston Last chance to save up to $190 on TechCrunch Founder Summit. Join 1,000+ founders and VCs at all stages for real-world scaling insights and connections that move the needle. Savings end June 26, 11:59 p.m. PT . REGISTER NOW Newsletters See More Subscribe for the industry’s biggest tech news TechCrunch Daily News Every weekday and Sunday, you can get the best of TechCrunch’s coverage. TechCrunch Mobility TechCrunch Mobility is your destination for transportation news and insight. Startups Weekly Startups are the core of TechCrunch, so get our best coverage delivered weekly. StrictlyVC Provides movers and shakers with the info they need to start their day. No newsletters selected. Subscribe By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . Related AI Microsoft is reportedly training salespeople to talk down OpenAI and Anthropic Lucas Ropek 15 hours ago AI Anthropic, Blackstone bet the next trillion-dollar AI business is implementation, not just models Rebecca Bellan 1 day ago AI Anthropic's newest ad is creeping people out Lucas Ropek 2 days ago Latest in AI Security How a former DeepMind researcher raised at a $300M pre-seed valuation before launching a product Maggie Nye 13 minutes ago AI Why AMI Labs’ Alexandre LeBrun won't call his AI ‘AGI' or ‘superintelligence' Kate Park 35 minutes ago In Brief Moonshot's upcoming Kimi 3 is expected to close the gap with Anthropic's Opus 4.8 Dominic-Madori Davis 49 minutes ago