Get the latest tech news

China’s Moonshot AI zooms to $2.5B valuation, raising $1B for an LLM focused on long context


The race to build the next big large language model is on, and now a contender out of China has reportedly banked a major round of funding to catapult it

Moonshot AI, an artificial intelligence startup founded less than a year ago building LLMs that can handle long inputs of text and data, has raised over $1 billion in a Series B round, according to multiple media reports out of China. He holds a computer science PhD from Carnegie Mellon University, where he was advised by Ruslan Salakhutdinov, who previously headed up AI research at Apple after the iPhone maker quietly acquired a startup he founded called Perceptual Machines – an acquisition that seems never to have been reported but is noted in the professor’s LinkedIn profile and professional timeline. Moonshot’s focus on longer input and output and producing more accurate results for queries involving this lays the groundwork for the company to target text-based use cases that haven’t been widely tapped by existing LLMs and generative AI applications, such as legal documents, fiction writing, and deeper financial analysis.

Get the Android app

Or read this on TechCrunch

Read more on:

Photo of China

China

Photo of LLM

LLM

Photo of 2.5B valuation

2.5B valuation

Related news:

News photo

China’s Spy Agency Sees Threats Everywhere in Data Security Push

News photo

‘Strings attached’: Saudi Arabia steps up demands in tech deals with China

News photo

US Bid to Loosen China’s Grip on Key Metals for EVs Is Stalling