Moonshot's AI Model Kimi K3 Leverages 20,000 Nvidia Chips from Alibaba

Chinese startup Moonshot has been using 20,000 Nvidia chips provided by Alibaba to power its high-performance AI model 'Kimi K3', according to Bloomberg. This computing power contract between Moonshot and Alibaba is a significant arrangement in the development of Kimi K3, which boasts 2.8 trillion parameters and outperforms some key metrics compared to Qwen, another AI model owned by Alibaba.

Despite China's push for semiconductor self-reliance, this deal highlights the country's continued reliance on US semiconductors for AI development. A source close to the matter stated that Alibaba wants its invested companies to use its cloud services, which led to some disappointment within Alibaba regarding Moonshot's use of their infrastructure.

Kimi K3 has drawn attention from the US industry and authorities due to its competitive performance despite US advanced semiconductor export controls. Michael Kratsios, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), claimed that Moonshot accessed Nvidia Blackwell chips through a third party in Thailand via a computing power lease agreement.