[Kuaishou's Keling AI Reportedly Nearing Completion of $3 Billion Financing, Post-Investment Valuation Reaches $18 Billion] According to monitoring by Dongcha Beating, Kuaishou's AI video generation model 'Keling AI' is reportedly nearing completion of an independent financing round exceeding $3 billion, with a post-investment valuation reaching $18 billion. A Middle Eastern-backed fund may lead the investment, with Tencent, Alibaba, Sequoia, and other potential investors also on the list. It is expected to complete restructuring and equity reform by 2026 and formally submit its IPO application in early 2027. The split financing is driven by mounting computational cost pressures and the funding gap compared to industry giants. In Q1 2026, Kuaishou's total revenue reached ¥33.7 billion, a year-on-year increase of 3.4%, but adjusted net profit plunged 26.3% year-on-year to ¥3.37 billion, as AI research and capital expenditures dragged down overall gross margins. Facing industry giants whose computational infrastructure spending easily reaches hundreds of billions or even ¥200 billion, Kuaishou's total revenue for 2025 was only ¥142.8 billion, while its projected capital expenditure of ¥26 billion for 2026 has already hit a financial bottleneck. The split financing has become the only solution for Keling's survival and Kuaishou's financial relief. In addition to financial pressures, fierce competition in technology and talent is accelerating. After Keling's former technical lead Zhang Di left to rejoin Alibaba, he led a team to launch HappyHorse-1.0 in just five months, which topped dual tracks on the Artificial Analysis rankings and surpassed Keling 3.0, demonstrating that the technical barriers of video models are rapidly being eroded by talent mobility. [Original Link]