TLDR
- Moonshot AI is in early talks with Microsoft, Amazon, and Google to host its Kimi K3 AI model on their cloud platforms
- The Chinese startup is seeking up to a 30% revenue share from K3-related services on Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud
- A deal would mark the first major revenue-sharing pact between a Chinese AI firm and a U.S. cloud giant
- Unresolved issues include revenue splits, data access, and auditing token usage
- Moonshot faces U.S. scrutiny over allegations it used Anthropic’s Fable model to build Kimi K3, which it denies
China’s Moonshot AI is in early negotiations with Microsoft, Amazon, and Google to host its Kimi K3 artificial intelligence model on their cloud platforms, according to Reuters sources familiar with the discussions.
China's 🇨🇳 Moonshot AI is in talks with Microsoft, Amazon and Google to bring Kimi K3 to Azure, AWS and Google Cloud, per Reuters.
Moonshot is seeking up to 30% of K3-related revenue, in what could be the first major China AI-U.S. cloud revenue-sharing deal. pic.twitter.com/b9mJpgh5yf
— Wall St Engine (@wallstengine) August 26, 2026
The startup is asking for up to a 30% share of revenue generated from K3-related services on Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud.
If a deal is reached, it would be the first major revenue-sharing agreement between a Chinese AI company and a U.S. cloud giant.
The talks are still at an early stage. There is no guarantee they will lead to a signed agreement, the sources said.
Moonshot, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google all declined to comment.
What Is Kimi K3?
Kimi K3 is an open-weight AI model with 2.8 trillion parameters, which Moonshot says is the world’s largest of its kind. Open-weight models can be downloaded and modified freely.
Despite being open-weight, analysts say most customers are unlikely to run the model on their own hardware due to the huge computing costs involved.
Arena.ai has ranked Kimi K3 first in a benchmark measuring web interface-building. Artificial Analysis says its performance is comparable to OpenAI’s GPT-5.5 and Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.8.
Moonshot has already signed revenue-sharing deals with smaller cloud providers. In July, Chinese IT services firm Chinasoft International confirmed such an agreement, though it did not disclose terms.
U.S. Scrutiny and Political Tensions
The negotiations are happening under political pressure. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last month he may add Moonshot to a trade blacklist.
White House science advisor Michael Kratsios accused Moonshot of developing Kimi K3 through “industrial distillation” of Anthropic’s model Fable. U.S. officials have also alleged the company illegally acquired Nvidia chips.
Moonshot has rejected the distillation claims, saying performance gains came from original changes to its underlying architecture.
The company has a computing agreement with Alibaba covering around 20,000 Nvidia chips. It has also reportedly been exploring acquiring Nvidia Blackwell GPUs for future models.
Funding and IPO Plans
Founded in 2023 by Carnegie Mellon-trained researcher Yang Zhilin, Moonshot is backed by Alibaba and other Chinese tech firms.
The company closed a funding round last month at a $35 billion valuation, raising $3.5 billion, above its initial target of $1 to $2 billion.
Moonshot is now reportedly seeking a new funding round at a $50 billion valuation ahead of a planned IPO on the Hong Kong exchange, possibly before the end of 2026.
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