Kling’s $18 Billion Private Value Tops Parent Kuaishou’s Market Cap

（本文作者为 Chelsea_Sun，钛媒体经授权发布）

NextFin News — Kuaishou has completed the cash closing on a major funding round for Beijing Kling, the company that houses its Kling AI video business. Investors paid in about 19.8 billion yuan in total. Some original subscribers failed to wire on time and exited; their slots were reassigned to new backers, including Kingdee and other financial and industrial names. After the deal, Kuaishou still controls the subsidiary through Lucky Labs, with roughly 66.7% of equity and 52.5% of voting rights.

The post-money valuation assigned to Kling is about $18 billion—more than 120 billion yuan. On the same day the closing was announced, Kuaishou’s Hong Kong shares closed near HK$26.5, implying a group market value under 100 billion yuan and a fresh low since the company’s listing. An unlisted, still-lossy AI unit is being marked higher than the public parent that built it.

That inversion is less a puzzle than a split in how capital scores assets. Private investors are paying for scarce AI video capability and a rising revenue run-rate. Public investors are marking a short-video platform whose advertising, live streaming, and commerce sit in a crowded, low-growth arena.

Kling’s top line is small next to the group but scaling quickly. Quarterly revenue moved from more than 650 million yuan in the first quarter to more than 850 million in the second, with year-on-year growth still measured in triple digits. Annualized revenue has been discussed around $5 billion’s Chinese-yuan equivalent of roughly 3 billion-plus yuan at recent run-rates cited in earnings materials—several times the level a year earlier. Broker research has floated the possibility of $10 billion in annualized recurring revenue by end-2026 and, on wide sales multiples, a valuation band that can encompass the current private mark. Profit is another matter. Filings pointed to widening net losses in 2024 and 2025; break-even has been discussed in industry reporting as a 2028-quarter story if compute costs fall and volume absorbs fixed costs.

Kuaishou’s second-quarter group revenue was about 35.5 billion yuan, up only 1.4%. Profit fell by more than a third. Live streaming declined; advertising, still the largest line, grew only modestly. Daily active users were barely higher year on year even as monthly users rose faster—suggesting weaker conversion of new accounts into daily habit. Management has described short video as a stock-competition market. Inside that frame, Kling’s contribution—on the order of 2% of first-half group sales—cannot re-rate the whole stock at AI multiples. Before separation talk, some bank models implied only a modest value for Kling inside the parent. Afterward, other houses published standalone targets several times higher. The gap is the difference between “a line item in a platform” and “an AI video company.”

The shareholder list is as notable as the valuation. Joint lead investors included financial sponsors and Tencent; industrial money included Alibaba Cloud and Baidu, alongside entertainment groups. Tencent and Alibaba Cloud each put in about 1.36 billion yuan for roughly 1.1% stakes; Baidu’s check was smaller. It is rare for China’s three large internet groups to appear together on one AI cap table—especially when each is building its own video-generation stack.

Their motives need not be identical. A stake can secure preferred API access for a creator ecosystem, lock in a heavy inference customer for a cloud franchise, or simply buy a seat at the table while in-house models continue. None of the three is surrendering the race; minority checks are cheap insurance and distribution options. Kuaishou, for its part, is not selling control. A dual-class structure gives technical leadership enhanced voting on a limited equity slice that lapses on departure or transfer. Outside investors hold financial exposure without operating vetoes. Capex guidance for the group has been raised sharply, with a large share aimed at models and compute; independent capital helps fund that appetite without asking public holders to finance every GPU cycle alone.

Growth is concentrated. Industry commentary has said a large majority of Kling API revenue comes from a handful of large accounts, and that some overseas clients reduced contribution as competition intensified. Any future listing will face scrutiny on related-party dealings, independence from the parent, and overlapping competition. Holding structures can also invite a conglomerate discount if the market treats Kuaishou mainly as a listed wrapper around a private AI jewel.

For now, the October closing freezes a clear snapshot: private capital will pay AI prices for Kling’s trajectory; public capital will not pay those prices for Kuaishou’s core feeds. Closing the gap depends less on another funding headline than on whether AI video revenue becomes large enough—and clean enough—to change how the whole group is read.