Kuaishou's Kling AI Closes a 19.8 Billion Yuan Round After Two Investors Fail to Pay, With a GPU Maker and Kingdee Filling the Gap
Kuaishou said on October 30 that its AI video unit Beijing Kling has completed its fundraising, with investors paying about RMB19.8 billion ($2.9 billion). Two investors, Dakang Lanwu and BFI MIDCO, failed to pay within the deadline and dropped out, and others, including units of Kingdee and Shanghai-listed GPU maker MetaX, took over parts of the commitments. Kuaishou keeps control, with 66.68% of the equity and 52.45% of the votes.
Kling AI's big round closed, but not with the investors who first signed up. Kuaishou Technology told the Hong Kong stock exchange on Friday, October 30, that all investors in its AI video unit Beijing Kling had paid in full and the subscriptions were complete, for an aggregate of about RMB19.8 billion (about $2.9 billion). The same filing shows two original investors were dropped for failing to pay on time, and that a Chinese GPU maker and an enterprise-software group were among those that took over their commitments.
Who dropped out and who stepped in#
Kuaishou says each of Dakang Lanwu and BFI MIDCO "was not able to complete the payment of its Subscription Price within the given period," and their agreements were terminated for the remaining RMB100 million and $80 million respectively. It says the termination "was due to objective reasons not attributable to any party."
Before that, parts of the commitments of Dakang Lanwu and two other investors were reassigned. A unit of Hong Kong-listed Kingdee International took on RMB300 million, Gongqingcheng Junke RMB200 million, and a unit of MetaX, the Shanghai-listed maker of GPUs for AI training and inference, a total of RMB100 million in two pieces. Those three received redemption rights. Tianjin Yuanfeng took over about RMB1.27 billion of an investor's commitment. Reuters, via CNA, described Kingdee, Gongqingcheng Junke and MetaX as new investors.
MetaX's stake is small, but it ties a domestic chipmaker to one of China's best-known AI video products. Its shares had halved since July, Reuters reported last month, in a broad slide in Chinese AI stocks.
Who owns Kling now#
After completion, Kuaishou's holding vehicle Lucky Labs holds 66.68% of Beijing Kling's equity and 52.45% of its voting rights, on the filing's fully diluted basis. Gai Kun, through equity awards, holds 3.02% of the equity but 23.72% of the votes. The investor list also includes units of Alibaba Cloud and Baidu.
Kuaishou did not say how Kling will use the money, CNA reported. Citing Bloomberg, it said Kling is planning an initial public offering next year.
Limits#
- The filing completes subscriptions first announced in July and updated in August. Reuters, via CNA, describes the completion as coming after "a $2.8 billion raise in July" at a $15 billion pre-money valuation; we read the filing as the completion of that same round, not a second one, and Kuaishou does not state a valuation.
- The dollar figure depends on the exchange rate: Kuaishou gives about $2.905 billion; CNA gives $2.98 billion.
- The filing is dated October 30, before this edition's window; we held it until we had read it in full.
- The IPO plan comes from Bloomberg's unnamed sources and has not been confirmed by Kuaishou.