Moonshot AI Targets 30% of Kimi K3 Revenue in Talks With U.S. Cloud Giants

Chinese startup Moonshot AI is negotiating revenue-sharing agreements with Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. Sources familiar with the talks said Moonshot AI’s revenue-sharing agreements would allow American cloud giants to host the recently launched Kimi K3 model. If any of the agreements materialize, it would mark the first major revenue-sharing deal between a top American cloud company and a Chinese AI firm.

What is the Focus of Moonshot AI’s U.S. Cloud Talks?

Sources familiar withthe talks said Moonshot AI’s negotiations with U.S. cloud providers focus on several unresolved issues. These include revenue sharing arrangements, data access, and token usage audits. Tokens are the units of text processed by AI models. Monitoring their usage helps to determine revenue under usage-based billing. Moonshot is reportedly negotiating for a 30% share of the total revenue generated from K3-related services on Amazon Web Services, Microsoft’s Azure, and Google Cloud. The proposal aligns with the startup’s terms for major customers who use its Kimi K3 open-weight model. Moonshot AI’s revenue splitting talks come at a time when U.S. tech players continue to debate open-weight AI. Moonshot AI’s talks with Microsoft, Google and Amazon are in the early stages and it’s still uncertain whether they would result in actual deals. Leading cloud providers provide important pathways to enterprise AI adoption for AI firms like Moonshot. The Chinese AI startup has reportedly signed revenue-sharing deals with smaller cloud providers. Chinese IT hinasoft International. However, details of the deal were not disclosed.

What Makes Moonshot AI’s Cloud Partnerships Significant?

The talks between Moonshot AI and major U.S. cloud providers are significant because they highlight the growing traction of Chinese AI models in the U.S. The discussions are reportedly taking place despite Washington’s move to restrict AI chip exports to China over national security concerns The talks also come on the backdrop of critical comments made by senior U.S. officials about Moonshot AI. Last month, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he might add the Chinese AI startup to a trade blacklist. Government officials have also accused Moonshot AI of acquiring NVIDIA chips illegally and distilling Anthropic’s Fable 5 AI model to create Kimi K3. Moonshot AI has denied claims that Kimi K3’s performance was achieved through distillation. Last month, the startup explained that the performance resulted from changes to the model’s underlying architecture.

What Would Revenue Sharing Deals Mean for Moonshot AI?

For Moonshot AI, securing revenue deals with Amazon, Microsoft, or Google could serve as a major gateway into the U.S. enterprise AI market. It would create a new recurring revenue stream for the startup and strengthen Kimi K3’s position as a competitor to American AI models. If the agreements move forward, they would mark an important step in Moonshot’s push beyond China. However, they would test whether a Chinese AI firm can build a sustainable business in the U.S amid rising regulatory and geopolitical tensions.