China’s Moonshot AI nears 30% revenue sharing talks with US cloud giants

Chinese AI startup Moonshot AI is reportedly in talks with U.S. cloud giants, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, in a licensing arrangement that could include charging the companies as much as 30% of their revenue from reselling its open-weight Kimi K3 model. 

Moonshot AI has already been in the news over a requirement that applies to any firm that sells the model as a service and earns more than $20 million a year. 

Why is Moonshot AI asking for a cut from U.S. companies? 

Moonshot AI is currently in early-stage negotiations with Microsoft, Amazon, and Google about revenue-sharing deals to host Kimi K3 on their cloud platforms, according to Reuters. 

Chinese AI startup Moonshot has announced that companies pulling in below $20 million in annual revenue can host Kimi K3 without owing Moonshot anything, but companies earning above that figure from reselling will shell out up to 30% of their revenue. 

AI researcher Rohan Paul recently raised concerns on X that Kimi K3’s terms are written to shield Moonshot’s own hosting business despite the fact that it ships with open weights. The terms dictate that large model-as-a-service providers need Moonshot’s permission before they can offer it, and very large applications built on the model are required to advertise Kimi K3. 

Private partner contracts can even add further commercial conditions. 

Despite this, DigitalOcean’s chief executive Paddy Srinivasan confirmed that the company has reached a commercial arrangement with Moonshot. 

A regulatory filing last month revealed that Chinasoft International has entered a revenue-sharing agreement with Moonshot. However, the percentage remains undisclosed.

Which other firms require companies to pay for reselling their models? 

Alibaba plans to require large commercial users of the open-weight version of its Qwen3.8-Max model to share revenue, although the rate is still under negotiation. 

The company’s shares rose by 7% in Hong Kong after the Qwen3.8-Max announcement. The company’s shares faced a significant but unrelated decline on August 24, falling by up to 10% when it announced a large share placement to fund its AI development.

Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) also recently launched a revenue-sharing program that gives AI startups access to its hardware in exchange for a portion of the cloud revenue those partners generate. 

Sharon AI and Firmus Technologies are reportedly Nvidia’s first participants.