Chinese AI video maker Kling raises $2 billion as it gears up for Hong Kong IPO

Kuaishou's AI video division Kling raised $2 billion from investors including CPE, Tencent, and Citic Securities, valuing the unit at $18 billion. The funding round supports Kling's planned spinoff and IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, as Chinese AI companies increasingly pursue public listings.

Chinese AI video maker Kling raises $2 billion as it gears up for Hong Kong IPO Kuaishou has raised about $2 billion from investors for its AI video division, Kling. The funding round brought in 13.82 billion yuan $2.04 billion , the Wall Street Journal https://www.wsj.com/tech/kling-raises-2-billion-amid-planned-spinoff-from-kuaishou-8fcd1571 reported, pushing the unit's valuation to $18 billion. CPE, Guofang Investment, BlueFive, Tencent, and Citic Securities are leading the round. More investors could still join, which would push the total to as much as $3 billion. Kuaishou's stake in Kling would then fall to 68.33 percent. Sources familiar with the matter said as early as May that Kuaishou planned to spin off Kling and list it on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Kling is seen as a core part of the business but is still in the early stages of making money. The move puts Kling in a growing wave of Chinese AI companies lining up for IPOs in Hong Kong https://the-decoder.com/chinese-ai-startups-beat-silicon-valley-to-the-public-markets-in-a-massive-ipo-wave/ . MiniMax and Zhipu AI recently went public, some backed by the same strategic investors like Tencent and Alibaba. In the video market, Kling competes with tools like Google's Veo 3.1 https://the-decoder.com/googles-veo-3-1-update-delivers-sharper-visuals-more-realistic-textures-and-improved-audio/ , Runway's Gen-4.5 https://the-decoder.com/runways-gen-4-5-edges-past-google-and-openai-in-text-to-video-benchmark/ , and ByteDance's Seedance https://the-decoder.com/bytedances-seedance-2-5-breaks-the-30-second-barrier-for-ai-video-generation/ . The company recently unveiled its Kling 3.0 video model https://the-decoder.com/chinese-ai-video-model-kling-3-0-takes-another-step-toward-usable-creative-assets/ . AI News Without the Hype – Curated by Humans Subscribe to THE DECODER for ad-free reading, a weekly AI newsletter, our exclusive "AI Radar" frontier report six times a year, full archive access, and access to our comment section. Subscribe now Wall Street Journal https://www.wsj.com/tech/kling-raises-2-billion-amid-planned-spinoff-from-kuaishou-8fcd1571