Chinese social media company Kuaishou Technology is preparing to spin off its AI video-generation business, Kling AI, ahead of a planned IPO next year, aiming to benefit from strong investor enthusiasm for AI-related stocks, according to a report by The Information citing two sources familiar with the matter.
The company has reportedly been in discussions with prospective investors regarding a pre-IPO fundraising round that could value Kling at approximately $20 billion. Kling develops AI-powered video generation models that compete with offerings from ByteDance, Google, and Alibaba.
Kuaishou’s plans for Kling highlight the growing momentum among Chinese tech companies seeking to leverage the AI boom through public market fundraising. Earlier this year, large language model developers Zhipu and MiniMax experienced strong stock performance following their Hong Kong listings. Meanwhile, both Alibaba and Baidu are reportedly considering spin-offs and IPOs for their semiconductor design divisions this year.
Listed in Hong Kong, Kuaishou is one of the primary competitors to ByteDance’s Douyin platform in China and currently has a market capitalization of roughly $30 billion. According to one source, Kling’s proposed $20 billion valuation is based on expectations that the business could achieve annualized revenue of about $1.3 billion by the first quarter of next year, when the IPO process is expected to begin.
In March, Kuaishou stated that Kling’s annualized revenue, calculated using January figures, had already exceeded $300 million, and projected that annual revenue would double in 2026. One source added that Kling generated approximately $75 million in revenue during the first quarter of this year, with most of the income coming from overseas markets, particularly North America.
For comparison, Kuaishou’s total revenue in 2025 increased 12.5% year over year to 142.78 billion yuan ($20.1 billion). Its flagship short-video platform, which ranks second in China behind Douyin, averaged 736 million monthly active users during the fourth quarter of last year.
Kuaishou, whose Mandarin name translates to “quick hand,” launched the first Kling model in 2024, helping spark a new wave of Chinese AI video-generation products that challenged OpenAI’s Sora model at the time.
Kling allows users to generate videos using either text prompts or images and monetizes its services through several channels. Its website and mobile application offer subscription plans ranging from $6.99 to $127.99 per month. The company also charges enterprise clients for access to its AI models via API usage fees. In March, Kuaishou noted that Kling’s AI-generated video technology was already being widely adopted across industries including advertising, e-commerce, television, animation, and gaming.
Kuaishou has not revealed Kling’s daily or monthly active user figures. However, the company said in January that Kling was serving more than 60 million creators globally.