Moonshot reveals new AI model, and it's a big surprise here's why Kimi K3 is a threat to the likes of OpenAI

Date:
Fri, 17 Jul 2026 16:17:32 +0000

Description:
Kimi K3 model is a threat to the likes of OpenAI for two key reasons: its
open nature, and apparently sterling coding skills.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Moonshot has launched a new AI model, Kimi K3 It's surprisingly powerful, with the Chinese AI firm claiming it outguns most US rivals, save for a couple of exceptions Kimi K3 is open weight by nature, which poses a further threat to the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic Moonshot, one of the emerging Chinese AI giants, has just revealed
a new AI model which is seemingly up there with the likes of ChatGPT and Claude.

Bloomberg reports that Moonshot's new Kimi K3 model can equal the best that the US has to offer, at least based on the company's own benchmarking. Seemingly it outguns all rival AIs save for Claude Fable 5 (from Anthropic) and GPT-5.6 (from OpenAI). Kimi K3 is a model with 2.8 trillion parameters, Bloomberg tells us, and Artificial Analysis ranked it ahead of Anthropic's Opus 4.8 on some benchmarks. Latest Videos From Watch full video here:

Moonshot also claims it beats Chinese rival Z.AI for coding tasks, and overall, the performance of the new model has caught the market by surprise.

Moonshot notes in a blog post that Kimi K3 is the "world's first open
3T-class model, designed for frontier intelligence across long-horizon
coding, knowledge work, and reasoning." You may like Kimi AI review OpenAI unveils big GPT-5.6 upgrades for ChatGPT, but you can't use them yet OpenAIs ChatGPT-5.6 may be too powerful to launch like a normal update

Kimi K3 is available to use now. Bloomberg quotes Leonid Mironov, a portfolio manager at Gavekal Capital, as saying: "In my use, it's clearly the best Chinese model ever," noting that it's "brilliant" no less. Analysis: a
weighty threat (Image credit: Getty Images) This is a threat to the big US players in the AI market for several reasons. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

The key difference with Kimi K3 is that it's what's known as an "open weight" model, meaning anyone can grab the model to run it for themselves from July 27, when the weights are released without paying anything. It's not the same as open source, though, as while you can get the model, what you don't get to do is peek behind the scenes at how the model was trained (and on what data).

The other caveat is that running Kimi K3 takes some extremely powerful hardware; but nonetheless, for firms with the substantial wherewithal to do that, the pre-trained model is there for the taking at no cost. So, you can imagine how this open weight approach is threatening to the AI behemoths in the US (and this is presumably the point of going this way for the Chinese rival).

What will also be a concern to the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic is that Moonshot is attacking one of the most lucrative aspects of AI, with Kimi K3 being pushed for its coding skills. However, Moonshot is charging a lot more than Chinese rivals for those who want to use it, and in fact, it's priced around Claude Sonnet levels, so on a par with the current cutting-edge (frontier) AI models.

That in itself is a signal of the quality on offer here, and why Kimi K3 has raised quite a few eyebrows. As the competition around AI heats up, there are also concerns about whether that means safeguards will be increasingly overlooked in favor of faster development and progress (which has been a consistent source of worry for many as it is).

Adding to all the controversy are accusations of AI theft leveled by the US State Department at Chinese firms earlier this year, Moonshot included.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. The best laptops for all budgets Our top picks, based on real-world testing and comparisons

Read our full guide to the best laptops 1. Best overall: Apple MacBook Air 13-inch M5 2. Best budget: Apple MacBook Neo 3. Best Windows 11 laptop Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch 4. Best thin and light: Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i 5. Best Ultrabook Asus Zenbook S 16



======================================================================
Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/moonshot-reveals-new-ai-mode l-and-its-a-big-surprise-heres-why-kimi-k3-is-a-threat-to-the-likes-of-openai


--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 (Linux/64)
* Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100)