Kling AI Races Toward a Hong Kong IPO: Nearly $500M ARR, and a Subsidiary Priced Like Its Parent

Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that Kling AI - the video-generation model business incubated inside Kuaishou - has selected CICC, Goldman Sachs and UBS to underwrite a Hong Kong IPO targeting at least $1 billion, as early as 2027. No prospectus has been filed with HKEX and Kuaishou has made no formal announcement; timing, size and valuation may still shift with markets. But locking in a trio of that caliber usually means the process has moved from rumor to rails.

What Earned the Ticket: the Revenue Curve

Kling launched in June 2024 as an internal Kuaishou project. Its commercial scorecard since is unusually solid: Q1 2026 revenue above RMB 650 million, up more than 300% year-on-year; Q2 above RMB 850 million, up more than 200%; an annualized revenue run-rate approaching $500 million as of March, per Kuaishou's disclosures. On the demand side, global users passed 100 million in June across 224 countries and regions, with nearly 50,000 enterprise clients - both up about 67% from end-2025.

A Subsidiary Priced Like Its Parent

The more striking number is the valuation structure. In July, Kuaishou consolidated Kling's assets into Beijing Kling Intelligent Technology and opened an independent raise capped at roughly RMB 20.45 billion (about $3 billion), drawing Tencent, Alibaba Cloud, Baidu and CICC's investment arm at a reported post-money valuation near $18 billion - the largest single round in the video-model category worldwide. In late August, China's national AI industry fund invested RMB 1.4 billion for roughly 1.14% of enlarged capital, implying a Kling valuation around RMB 122.8 billion - broadly comparable to Kuaishou's own market value of about HK$130.76 billion, as Sina Finance calculated. A two-year-old business incubated inside a parent, now priced in the same league as the parent itself, is a first for this industry. The agreements also carry a buyback clause: if no IPO is completed by October 30, 2031, investors can require the company to repurchase their shares.

Hong Kong Is Becoming AI's Listing Home Turf

Kling is not alone. Shengshu Technology and PixVerse are also reportedly preparing Hong Kong listings, while ByteDance's Seedance looms as the strongest rival. If Kling completes the deal, it would be Hong Kong's first pure video-generation model company. For us, this confirms a thesis: Hong Kong is not merely a homecoming venue for Chinese assets - it is becoming the preferred capital platform for Asia-Pacific AI infrastructure companies. Chainfir Capital focuses on early-stage technology assets across Hong Kong, Singapore and New Zealand; we hold no position in Kuaishou or Kling, nor in any company mentioned above. What we care about is not the "first video-model stock" headline, but whether the prospectus, once filed, shows unit economics and revenue quality that survive public-market scrutiny.