Kuaishou Technology has poured $2.79 billion into its generative video subsidiary Kling AI, with Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu, Abu Dhabi's BlueFive Capital and Citic Securities joining the round, according to filings and reporting from Bloomberg and CNBC on July 2, 2026. The deal values Kling AI at roughly $18 billion post-money and sets up a Hong Kong IPO within 12 months, the largest single fundraise into an AI video startup on record.
How the Cap Table Shifts
Kuaishou anchored the raise, but the strategic capital came from China's three internet giants moving in unison for the first time on an AI video asset. Tencent committed $200 million; Alibaba and Baidu contributed alongside BlueFive Capital of the UAE. Once the round fully closes, Kuaishou's stake in Beijing Kling falls from 100% to roughly 68.33%, freeing enough of the cap table to accommodate a nine-month corporate reorganisation that consolidates all Kling assets into the Beijing Kling operating entity ahead of listing.
Kling Model Momentum
Kling AI launched its first text-to-video model in June 2024 and shipped Kling 2.0 in early 2026, positioning it as the leading Chinese answer to OpenAI Sora, Google Veo and Runway Gen-4. The Kuaishou-backed subsidiary has become a fixture in advertising, film pre-visualisation and social-video workflows, and the $18B valuation puts it ahead of most Western AI video peers on paper.
Hong Kong IPO Track
Kling is targeting a Hong Kong Stock Exchange listing within 12 months of the final closing payment. The listing would join a wave of China robotics and AI IPOs cleared this quarter, including Unitree's Shanghai STAR IPO and the recent Agility Robotics SPAC in the US, alongside private mega-rounds like NEURA Robotics' $1.4B Series C.
Why It Matters
Chinese hyperscalers are consolidating around a single national champion in generative video, mirroring the earlier alignment behind Zhipu and DeepSeek on the text side. Kling now has the balance-sheet firepower to compete on model training compute, GPU capacity and creator payouts - and a public-market on-ramp within a year.
Reporting based on coverage from Bloomberg, CNBC, WSJ and Reuters.