Moonshot AI's upcoming Kimi K3 model, with 2-3 trillion parameters, is expected to match or surpass Anthropic's Opus 4.8, marking a major step for open-weight Chinese AI models.
The FT reports Kimi K3 will be the largest open AI model from China, with a parameter count between 2 trillion and 3 trillion.
# Moonshot's upcoming Kimi 3 is expected to close the gap with Anthropic's Opus 4.8 | TechCrunch
Source: [https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/16/moonshots-upcoming-kimi-3-is-expected-to-close-the-gap-with-anthropics-opus-4-8/](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/16/moonshots-upcoming-kimi-3-is-expected-to-close-the-gap-with-anthropics-opus-4-8/)
In Brief
Posted:
7:26 AM PDT · July 16, 2026
**Image Credits:**[Raul Ariano/Bloomberg\(opens in a new window\)](https://www.gettyimages.com/search/2/image?artistexact=Bloomberg)/ Getty ImagesThe 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](https://www.ft.com/content/c6ecd8ce-c441-4d7c-aea6-fae3e28fb6ff?syn-25a6b1a6=1), citing anonymous sources\.
Moonshot’s[Kimi K2 models](https://artificialanalysis.ai/models/kimi-k2-6)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](https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/07/chinas-moonshot-ai-raises-2b-at-20b-valuation-as-demand-for-open-source-ai-skyrockets/)\.
The news comes amid a[fresh debate](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/13/satya-nadella-has-issued-a-shocking-warning-to-companies-using-ai/)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](https://www.cnbc.com/video/2026/07/01/palantir-ceo-alex-karp-says-something-has-gone-completely-wrong-with-how-ai-is-sold.html)their own products as alternatives, or[recommending](https://www.cautiousoptimism.news/the-new-enterprise-mantra-if-i-pay-your-margin-i-keep-my-data/)companies take cheaper open source models, like those developed by DeepSeek, Z\.ai, or Moonshot, and train them for their own purposes\.
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