Kuaishou's Kling AI video unit raises $2.98B at an $18B valuation

Kuaishou Technology said on October 30, 2026 that its AI video unit, Beijing Kling, has completed a fundraising round of about 19.8 billion yuan, or US$2.98 billion. The deal values the business at roughly US$15 billion before the investment and US$18 billion after it, and Kuaishou keeps two-thirds of the equity and 52.45% of the voting rights through its holding vehicle, Lucky Labs.

For developers who build on AI video models, this is less a product launch than a signal about staying power: one of the largest video-generation businesses outside the US now has close to US$3 billion of fresh capital, a parent that stays in charge, and a reported path toward a stock market listing.

What Kuaishou announced about the Kling round

The confirmed core of the story is short. Beijing Kling finished a financing round worth about 19.8 billion yuan on October 30, 2026, which the company put at US$2.98 billion; Reuters reported the deal. Headlines rounding the figure to “nearly $3 billion” reflect rounding rather than a different number.

The valuation figures, about US$15 billion pre-money (before the new cash) and about US$18 billion post-money (after it), are reported rather than audited, because the announcement as summarised does not include a filing-grade breakdown. The gap between the two, about US$3 billion, matches the size of the raise, which is what a standard pre-money and post-money calculation would produce.

The announcement leaves several things open. The identities of the investors, the amount each put in, the number of participating institutions and the planned use of the money are not established by the Reuters report.

Item	Figure	Status
Issuer	Beijing Kling (Kuaishou unit)	Confirmed
Round size	About 19.8 billion yuan / US$2.98 billion	Confirmed
Completion date	October 30, 2026	Confirmed
Kuaishou equity after round	Two-thirds, via Lucky Labs	Confirmed
Kuaishou voting rights after round	52.45%	Confirmed
Pre-money valuation	About US$15 billion	Reported
Post-money valuation	About US$18 billion	Reported

Statuses as classified by Shattered’s summary of the Kuaishou announcement relayed by Reuters.

Who controls Kling after the deal: shares versus votes

The two governance numbers point in slightly different directions. Two-thirds of the equity is about 66.7%, while voting rights sit at 52.45%, a gap of about 14.2 percentage points in Shattered’s arithmetic. Kuaishou owns far more of the economic value than it needs to control decisions, yet its voting majority is narrow.

Shattered’s own calculations add context. New money of US$2.98 billion is about 16.6% of the US$18 billion post-money value, and the step-up from US$15 billion to US$18 billion is about 1.2 times, or roughly 20%. The outlet reads that as “a priced round rather than a frenzy” and a measured dilution rather than a fire sale.

One caution from the same analysis: the sources do not say how much of the 19.8 billion yuan came from outside investors and how much, if any, came from Kuaishou itself, so 16.6% is a ceiling on new outside ownership rather than a measured stake. The implied exchange rate of about 6.64 yuan per dollar is likewise Shattered’s arithmetic on the two reported figures, not a rate quoted by Reuters.

How this round compares with earlier reports

The completed deal lands after months of reports that do not all line up with each other, and the differences matter for anyone tracking who now owns Kling.

May: spin-off talk at around $20 billion

In May, TechNode reported, citing market sources, that Kuaishou was considering spinning off Kling AI for a separate initial public offering the following year and had begun talks with potential investors over a pre-IPO round that reportedly valued the unit at around $20 billion. Kuaishou had not commented at the time.

July: talks at $18 billion, with a named lead

By early July, a report carried by KuCoin said Kling was in advanced discussions to raise over $2 billion in what would be its first external funding round, with General Atlantic positioned to lead, at roughly $18 billion post-money. According to that report, Kling had originally sought $20 billion and adjusted its expectations to match investor sentiment ahead of a potential IPO targeted for early 2027, and the round would facilitate a spin-off making Kling more autonomous from Kuaishou.

October 6: a report that the round had already closed

Crypto Briefing reported on October 6 that Kling had raised approximately $2.8 billion in July 2026, with the round capped at $3 billion, at around $18 billion post-money. It said Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu all participated, and that Kuaishou’s stake was expected to be diluted to about 68%.

Those accounts differ from the October 30 announcement on timing (July versus October 30), on size (about $2.8 billion versus US$2.98 billion) and on Kuaishou’s resulting stake (about 68% versus two-thirds). The investor names also conflict: General Atlantic as lead in one report, Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu in another. Shattered treats any backers named by other outlets as unconfirmed until Kuaishou or the investors say so on the record. Unicorn API follows the same approach: the investor list should be read as unconfirmed.

There is also a small naming difference. Crypto Briefing describes the restructured entity as “Beijing Keling,” and notes Kling is also known as Keling AI, while the announcement coverage uses “Beijing Kling”. These appear to be two renderings of the same Chinese name rather than two companies.

What the money is backing: Kling’s revenue and Kling 4.0

Kling launched in 2024 as Kuaishou’s flagship video-generation model. TechNode describes it as taking a technical approach similar to OpenAI’s Sora with in-house additions, and says it is generally considered to perform at a comparable level, an assessment the outlet attributes to general opinion rather than a specific benchmark.

Revenue figures come from press reports, not audited filings. Kling had an annualised revenue run rate of $240 million by December 2025, according to the July report. Crypto Briefing reports that run rate reached roughly $500 million by March 2026, and that the unit’s revenue topped RMB 850 million in the second quarter of 2026, growth of more than 200% year on year.

On the product side, Crypto Briefing reports that Kling unveiled Kling 4.0 on September 28, 2026. According to that report, the update:

• supports video clips of up to 30 seconds;
• adds enhanced controls;
• accepts multiple reference inputs, meaning several images or clips the model uses to guide a generation.

The same report positions Kling 4.0 against ByteDance’s Seedance, another Chinese AI video tool. The sources do not give benchmark results for Kling 4.0, nor details of API access, regions or pricing, so this article does not report them.

What the Kling raise means for builders

For teams that generate video through APIs, the practical questions are continuity, pace and control.

• Runway for the model. Video models consume cash on GPUs, data licensing, safety work and distribution, and Shattered argues a sum near US$3 billion buys years of runway at almost any plausible spending rate. That points toward a model line that keeps getting updated rather than one at risk of being shelved, though the announcement does not say how the money will be split between compute, staff or overseas expansion.
• Parent control stays. With Kuaishou holding 52.45% of the votes, strategic decisions remain with the short-video company. Product direction is likely to stay tied to its priorities rather than to any single outside investor.
• Shareholders with their own AI plans. If the reported participation of Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu is confirmed, Crypto Briefing notes that Kling’s biggest shareholders would include companies with their own AI ambitions, which could complicate strategic decisions later.
• A crowded video market. Kling competes with ByteDance’s Seedance at home, and other video model makers keep shipping too, such as Pika’s open-weight H3 Flex with sound and MiniMax’s H3 video models. Builders who rely on one provider have reason to keep their video pipelines model-agnostic.

The limits are clear in the sources. The valuation is reported, not audited. Revenue numbers come from press reports. And an $18 billion private valuation sits at many multiples of a roughly $500 million revenue run rate, so public-market buyers would need to believe growth above 200% can hold for a while, as Crypto Briefing points out.

What to watch next: a reported Hong Kong listing

The round appears to be a step toward a public listing. Crypto Briefing reported on October 6 that Kling plans a Hong Kong IPO raising at least $1 billion, with CICC, Goldman Sachs and UBS as underwriters and a target of early 2027. Kuaishou itself trades in Hong Kong under the ticker 1024. Raising at least $1 billion against an $18 billion valuation would float a relatively small slice of the company.

The same report says Kuaishou’s May 2026 restructuring plan consolidated Kling’s assets into a single entity and came with investor protections: if Kling does not go public by October 30, 2031, investors hold repurchase rights. That gives the listing plan a hard outer deadline, even if the target date slips.

Points to track from here:

1. Whether Kuaishou or the investors confirm who put money into the round, and how much came from outside the group.
2. Any formal IPO filing in Hong Kong, which would provide audited figures on revenue and costs that the private round does not.
3. How the unit spends the money, which the announcement does not break down.
4. The next Kling model release after Kling 4.0, and how it compares with Seedance and other rivals.