Chinese startup Moonshot AI released a new artificial-intelligence model on July 17 that drew global attention both for its powerful capabilities and for sending stock markets reeling around the world.

The Beijing-based company’s Kimi K3 AI model delivers performance on industry benchmarks that rivals top-tier offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic PBC, a surprising breakthrough for a firm that has operated in the shadow of local competitor DeepSeek.

AI and semiconductor stocks tumbled on investor concerns that the rise of China’s AI businesses could force US leaders such as Anthropic to pull back on their investments. That could undercut demand at industry powerhouses Nvidia, SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, whose stock prices fell following the Moonshot news.

What is Moonshot?

Moonshot was founded in early 2023 by Yang Zhilin, a former Tsinghua University professor who previously worked at Meta Platforms and Alphabet’s Google.

Before the breakout of DeepSeek, he was the poster boy of Chinese AI.

An alumnus of Carnegie Mellon University, Yang has written more than a dozen widely cited research papers on natural language processing. When he set out to launch his own company to challenge OpenAI, venture capitalists rushed to back him. MoonShoot AI’s valuation soon reached US$20 billion (S$25.82 billion) as Kimi became China’s most popular ChatGPT alternative.

What else is Yang Zhilin known for?

Moonshot’s founder is not just an academic.

The 33-year-old is a huge music fan who has infused his company with the names of his favorite bands. Conference rooms at headquarters sport names including Radiohead, Led Zeppelin, Queen and Nirvana.

Kimi...