Chinese artificial intelligence start-up Moonshot AI has unveiled a powerful new model that it says could compete with leading AI systems developed by American companies.

The company has announced Kimi K3, a massive artificial intelligence model containing 2.8 trillion parameters. Parameters are commonly used as an indicator of an AI model’s scale and potential processing capabilities.

Moonshot AI is expected to release Kimi K3 as an open-source model on 27 July, allowing developers to examine, download, run, and customise the system.

The model is expected to support capabilities including coding, knowledge work, and advanced reasoning, although its full performance will become clearer after its public release.

The launch is being closely watched as China’s technology sector continues to make rapid progress in artificial intelligence. The development could further challenge the assumption that Chinese AI companies significantly lag behind their American competitors.

If released as planned, Kimi K3 would become one of the largest openly available AI models, potentially marking a significant moment in the global race to develop increasingly powerful artificial intelligence systems.