Moonshot AI heralds new generation of Asian AI champions

HAS Chinese startup Moonshot AI sparked another DeepSeek moment, or is it simply adding more fuel to the artificial intelligence boom?

The market’s initial reaction suggests investors fear the former. Following the release of Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3 model – widely acknowledged as capable of competing with leading models from Anthropic and OpenAI – technology stocks came under selling pressure.

Semiconductor stocks were hit particularly hard, despite being the sector that has seen stellar gains since April. The sell-off was reflected in the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index, which fell from a recent record high of 14,635 on Jun 22 to a recent low of 11,744, down a staggering 20 per cent in a month.