"AI New Generation" hits a valuation of over $20 billion after a new round of funding! The dark side of the moon accelerates capital rush, how long can the secondary market window last?

Our newspaper (chinatimes.net.cn) reporter Shi Feiyue reports from Beijing

The capital engine behind the Moon’s Dark Side is running at full speed. On May 7, Huafeng Capital officially announced that the Moon’s Dark Side recently completed a new round of financing of approximately $2 billion, with the post-investment valuation exceeding $20 billion. In just half a year, the company has raised a cumulative total of over $3.9 billion, with total financing surpassing 37.6 billion yuan. It has become the company with the highest accumulated funding among domestic large model startup companies. Recently, there have also been reports that it is preparing for an IPO. The starting point of this wave of capital moves closely coincides with the timeline of Zhang Yutong’s change of position. In December last year, Zhang Yutong made her first public appearance as President of the Moon’s Dark Side, taking charge of the company’s overall strategy and commercialization.

However, whether it is frequent fundraising or preparing for listing, all signs point to the same message: the Moon’s Dark Side is starting to feel anxious. As Zhipu and MiniMax successively entered the capital markets and reaped substantial market value gains, and with the news of DeepSeek’s financing and Jietiancai (Zhaoyue Xingchen) pushing toward an IPO continually fermenting, a harsh risk is hidden in this track—fall behind by even a little, and it could mean that the room for valuation growth shrinks. Fortunately, the most recently disclosed commercialization data from the Moon’s Dark Side is relatively optimistic. The next suspense is: who can seize the next AI large model listing window.

Intensive Fundraising

This round of financing for the Moon’s Dark Side was led by Meituan Longzhu, with participation from Shuimu Capital, China Mobile, CPE Yuanfeng, and others. Huafeng Capital served as a financial adviser for part of the transaction as a buyer.

The most attention has been on China Mobile’s entry into this round of financing, and outsiders have also given it special interpretations. However, according to Li Mingshun, founder of Shunfu Capital, China Mobile’s investment in the Moon’s Dark Side is not as extraordinary as the outside world has portrayed; it is more a direct reflection of changes in the structure of LPs in the current primary market. In addition, he told a reporter from Huaxia Times that the Moon’s Dark Side had previously received funding from platform-type capital such as Alibaba and Tencent. At this stage, introducing state-owned capital such as China Mobile can also help achieve a balance in the shareholder structure; this is more of a rational allocation of capital under current market conditions.

According to Tianyancha business registration information, up to now the Moon’s Dark Side has completed 7 rounds of financing since its establishment, with investors including Alibaba, Tencent, Meituan, Xiaohongshu, Sequoia China, ZhenFund, and others. The most recent three rounds of financing have basically been concentrated in the past six months, occurring in December 2025, February 2026, and May 2026, respectively.

However, before the round of financing in December 2025, the Moon’s Dark Side had a “funding freeze” period of more than a year. This may have something to do with changes in the overall landscape of the large model market and shifts in industry financing.

Before DeepSeek went viral around last Spring Festival, the Moon’s Dark Side was a rising star in the large model market. Its monthly active users and visit volume ranked among the top in the industry, and the company also spent heavily on marketing and promotions to compete for market share, only to find that DeepSeek suddenly achieved phenomenon-level dissemination in a “zero ad spend” mode by relying on product strength. After that, the Moon’s Dark Side’s market influence predictably declined.

In addition, in the first half of 2025, among the “AI six little tigers,” only Zhipu secured several rounds of financing, while no financing news was reported for the other companies. At that time, some industry insiders analyzed for this reporter that the primary market’s favor toward large models had shifted, and AI applications were the most favored investment targets then.

The turning point appeared in December last year, which may have been related to co-founder Zhang Yutong’s change in position at the Moon’s Dark Side. At that time, Zhang Yutong made her first public appearance representing the company as President of the Moon’s Dark Side at an important event. She was mainly responsible for the company’s overall strategy and commercialization.

On the Moon’s Dark Side’s path of fundraising, Zhang Yutong, who had previously been a managing partner in charge at GSR Ventures, played an important role as a senior investor. Therefore, in 2024, Yang Zhilin, the founder of the Moon’s Dark Side, invited Zhang Yutong to join the company. At the time, Yang posted that he did not have much experience in fundraising, while Zhang Yutong had made important contributions to the Moon’s Dark Side in terms of business, strategy, and multiple fundraising campaigns.

Sure enough, in just half a year, the Moon’s Dark Side completed three rounds of financing, and its valuation surged significantly. Not long ago, there were reports that the Moon’s Dark Side was in an early stage of considering a Hong Kong listing, and it had already started discussions with CICC and Goldman Sachs regarding IPO cooperation; the relevant discussions are still ongoing. This reporter from Huaxia Times asked the Moon’s Dark Side to confirm, but as of the time of publication, the company had not replied.

Valuation Potential

The Moon’s Dark Side managed to secure three rounds of substantial financing within half a year, driving a significant valuation increase—which is inseparable from its own product strength.

The rotation of hotspots in the large model market moves extremely quickly. After giving up C-end traffic investment last year and entering a period of strategic adjustment, the Moon’s Dark Side finally launched Kimi K2 in July, regaining reputation and attention. More recently, the released and open-sourced Kimi K2.6 has also received solid market feedback.

According to data released by the “AI product ranking” on May 8, in this year’s April domestic overall rankings (website ranking), DeepSeek ranked first domestically with 486 million monthly visits; next came Nano AI Search (222 million), Doubao (162 million), Qianwen (44.24 million), and Kimi (43.69 million), forming the second tier domestically. Li Mingshun said that the Kimi K2.6 version has significantly strengthened programming capabilities, further consolidating its advantages in directions such as long-text processing and “premium models.” This undoubtedly adds points to product strength and opens up a larger space in the market.

In addition, Li Mingshun emphasized that this half-year “turnaround” of the Moon’s Dark Side in the capital market also owes much to external factors. He pointed out that after Zhipu and MiniMax were listed at the beginning of this year and their market values climbed steadily, the Moon’s Dark Side, which had not yet listed, looked “cheaper” by comparison. This valuation gap objectively created a better financing window for the company.

Huafeng Capital believes that with the accelerated adoption of Agent applications, the market values of Zhipu and MiniMax—both leading large model companies—are now in the range of HKD 200 billion to HKD 400 billion, and the Moon’s Dark Side’s current valuation of about RMB 140 billion still has significant room for growth.

Since its listing 5 months ago, Zhipu’s stock price and market value have repeatedly hit new highs. As of the close on May 8, its market value had reached HKD 4,115 billion. Meanwhile, MiniMax’s market value also surpassed HKD 380 billion in March this year. Although it has recently experienced a significant pullback, it still remains above HKD 200 billion.

But it is undeniable that the successful listing of Zhipu and MiniMax not only brings hope for high valuations for large model companies, but also creates pressure for companies that have not yet listed—including the Moon’s Dark Side. Some industry insiders previously told this reporter that the capital logic in emerging technology tracks has always been “first come, first served.” Companies that list first can fully harvest market dividends, while latecomers may not even be able to complete listing. Even if they manage to list, the premium space left for them will be very limited.

Apart from the two companies that have already successfully listed, DeepSeek has recently been reported to be negotiating its first round of financing, with a valuation as high as $45 billion, and Jietiancai (Zhaoyue Xingchen) has also been reported to be pushing toward Hong Kong stocks. Whether in terms of quantity or pace, competitors are racing ahead.

In Li Mingshun’s view, if the Moon’s Dark Side succeeds in listing, its market value growth space mainly depends on two external conditions: first, the U.S. market—whether the valuation of OpenAI or Anthropic can maintain, and even continue to rise; second, the Hong Kong market—whether the share prices of Zhipu and MiniMax, both large model companies that have been listed this year, will decline in the second half of this year. “If both markets can remain steady, the Moon’s Dark Side’s valuation likely still has room to rise. Overall, there is about a 70–80% level of confidence.”

Fortunately, the Moon’s Dark Side’s commercialization process is accelerating. Huafeng Capital disclosed that benefited from iterative improvements in model capabilities, the company’s ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) exceeded $200 million in April, and paid subscription and API revenues are growing at a faster pace.

Editor: Huang Xingli Chief Editor: Han Feng