Moonshot's K3 Sparks Export Control Debate with Nvidia Chips

Kimi K3's Nvidia Chips from Alibaba Face US Export Claims

The launch of Moonshot's open-source model, K3, has put the company in the global spotlight.

Alibaba, one of Moonshot's biggest backers, has been pushing portfolio companies to use its cloud, several people familiar with the companies' operations said. However, the two companies compete too, and Kimi has outperformed Alibaba's own Qwen models on key measures while running on Alibaba's infrastructure.

The roughly 20,000 processors in the Alibaba arrangement are Hopper-generation chips, not Blackwell. Several sources familiar with the startup said the agreement covers H200s, the most powerful Hopper chips.