Chinese AI start‑up Moonshot is set to release Kimi K3, China’s largest model to date with 2tn-3tn parameters, in the coming days. The size of a model’s neural network is measured in parameters, and a embraces a higher count generally means higher capability. Anthropic’s Opus 4.8 is speculated to have 1.5tn-2tn parameters, yet K3 is expected to outperform it on mainstream benchmarks and will be freely available as an open‑weight model.

The launch could challenge the prevailing view that Chinese AI models lag U.S. labs by eight to 12 months. Open‑weight models also pose a challenge to closed‑model leaders such as Anthropic and OpenAI, whose expensive frontier tools are now charging higher fees. Anthropic will raise Opus 4.8 by 50% to $3 per million input tokens and $15 per million output tokens in September, while Chinese labs offer cheaper, downloadable models.

The move comes as U.S. investors, including Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz, note the narrowing gap. Moonshot is raising a new round that could value the company at about $31.5bn.