Kuaishou’s Kling AI is seeking its first funding round since its spinoff, according to IPO Zaozhidao, in a deal that would give the video generation business a pre-money valuation of USD 18 billion.
The round is also being viewed as a pre-IPO financing, according to the same source. Internal plans call for Kling to file a Hong Kong listing application in early 2027.
Kuaishou closed at HKD 48.98 (USD 6.2) a share on June 2, giving it a market capitalization of HKD 212.4 billion (USD 27.1 billion). Based on an approximate USD-HKD conversion, Kling AI’s USD 18 billion pre-money valuation is equal to roughly 66% of Kuaishou’s market value. That implies private investors are pricing the artificial intelligence business on stronger growth expectations than those typically applied to short video platforms.
Revenue growth supports Kling AI’s valuation
Kuaishou’s first-quarter 2026 results showed that Kling AI generated more than RMB 650 million (USD 95.8 million) in revenue during the period, up more than 300% year-on-year.
In March, Kling’s annualized revenue run rate, or ARR, was close to USD 500 million, four times the level recorded a year earlier. Kuaishou raised its full-year 2026 ARR guidance for Kling from USD 300 million to USD 500 million, citing rapid business growth.
Kuaishou chairman and CEO Cheng Yixiao said during the company’s earnings call that Kling’s growth is being driven by both enterprise API usage and consumer subscriptions. During the quarter, the number of paying users and the average monthly payment per user increased, while retention among enterprise and consumer users remained healthy. Cheng said this reflected Kling’s product stickiness among creative professionals.
In the first quarter of 2026, Kling strengthened its position in AI video generation through model iteration, product upgrades, and deeper penetration of professional use cases.
Kling launched its 3.0 series models in February. The models are built on an all-in-one product architecture and support multimodal input and output across text, images, audio, and video.
Kling also introduced a team-oriented pricing plan that supports real-time collaboration among as many as 15 members, allowing creators to manage team-based content production workflows more efficiently.
Professional use cases drive Kling AI adoption
According to Cheng, Kling AI is mainly used across three professional scenarios: advertising and marketing; film, television, and short drama; and gaming.
In advertising and marketing, Kling supports the full visual creation workflow, helping teams with creative visualization while maintaining consistency and stability for people and products across scenarios.
In film, television, and short drama, Kling can be used for script breakdowns, character and scene concept design, assisted storyboarding, and final video production. The platform can automate parts of the production process and may help reduce production timelines and costs.
In game production, Kling can support project planning, dynamic previews, visual effects, and narrative animation generation.
Kling 3.0 is currently ranked among the top Chinese text-to-video models. The latest Artificial Analysis rankings place Kling 3.0 fourth globally, behind ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0, Alibaba’s HappyHorse-1.0, and Kunlun’s SkyReels V4.
This article was adapted based on a feature originally written by SY and published on IPO Zaozhidao. KrASIA is authorized to translate, adapt, and publish its contents.
Note: HKD, RMB figures are converted to USD at rates of HKD 7.84 = USD 1 and RMB 6.79 = USD 1 based on estimates as of June 4, 2026, unless otherwise stated. USD conversions are presented for ease of reference and may not fully match prevailing exchange rates.