- Kuaishou raised about $2.04 billion (13.82 billion yuan) for its AI video division, Kling.
- The round pushes Kling’s valuation to $18 billion, with CPE, Guofang Investment, BlueFive, Tencent, and Citic Securities leading.
- More investors could join, potentially taking the total to as much as $3 billion and cutting Kuaishou’s stake to 68.33 percent.
- Kuaishou plans to spin Kling off and list it on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
What Happened
Kuaishou has raised about $2 billion from investors for its AI video division, Kling, as reported by The Decoder on July 3, 2026. The round brought in 13.82 billion yuan ($2.04 billion), the Wall Street Journal reported, pushing the unit’s valuation to $18 billion.
The financing sets up a planned spin-off and public listing for one of China’s most prominent text-to-video systems.
Why It Matters
The financing places Kling in a growing wave of Chinese AI companies lining up for Hong Kong IPOs, following recent listings by MiniMax and Zhipu AI, some backed by the same strategic investors such as Tencent and Alibaba. That clustering suggests Hong Kong is becoming the default venue for Chinese AI firms seeking public capital.
It also capitalizes a direct competitor to the leading text-to-video models at a moment when that market is consolidating around a few well-funded players. An $18 billion valuation for a unit still early in generating revenue signals how much investors are willing to pay for a credible position in AI video specifically, rather than general-purpose models.
Technical Details
CPE, Guofang Investment, BlueFive, Tencent, and Citic Securities are leading the round, and more investors could still join, which would push the total to as much as $3 billion. If that happens, Kuaishou’s stake in Kling would fall to 68.33 percent, keeping the parent in clear control after the raise. Sources familiar with the matter said as early as May that Kuaishou planned to spin off Kling and list it on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In the video market, Kling competes with tools including Google’s Veo 3.1, Runway’s Gen-4.5, and ByteDance’s Seedance, and the company recently unveiled its Kling 3.0 video model, its latest attempt to keep pace with that field.
Who’s Affected
The raise affects Kuaishou shareholders, whose ownership of Kling would dilute toward 68 percent if the round expands, and the investors leading it, who are betting on a pre-profit unit at an $18 billion mark. Competitors in AI video — Google, Runway, and ByteDance — face a rival with fresh capital and a public-market path that could fund a faster release cadence. Kling is described as a core part of Kuaishou’s business but still in the early stages of generating revenue, which puts the weight of the valuation on future growth.
What’s Next
The immediate steps are whether the round expands toward $3 billion and how quickly the Hong Kong listing proceeds after the planned spin-off. The stated limitation is monetization: Kling is still early in making money, so the IPO case rests on growth and model competitiveness against Veo 3.1, Gen-4.5, and Seedance rather than current profit. The release of Kling 3.0 is the near-term test of whether the company can hold its position in a market where model quality changes quickly.
