Kling AI closes $3B round at $18B valuation as Alibaba and Tencent back China’s Sora rival: report

Kling AI, a Chinese generative AI startup, raised $3 billion in funding at an $18 billion valuation, with Alibaba and Tencent among the backers, according to a report. The company is developing a rival to OpenAI's Sora, which shut down its consumer version in April 2026.

OpenAI shut down the consumer version of Sora in April 2026 after it burned through roughly a million…