Musk Says 2 Trillion-Parameter Grok 4.6 May Top Kimi K3 as Moonshot Fires Back
Updated
Updated · Business Insider · Jul 21
Musk Says 2 Trillion-Parameter Grok 4.6 May Top Kimi K3 as Moonshot Fires Back
3 articles · Updated · Business Insider · Jul 21
Summary
Elon Musk said Saturday that xAI’s Grok 4.6 has entered final training and that the 2 trillion-parameter model might beat Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3 while keeping Grok 4.5-like speed and token efficiency.
Moonshot AI answered on Weibo with “Welcome to the 2 Trillion+ Club,” a reply widely praised by Chinese users as confident and measured rather than confrontational.
Kimi K3 had already become a major online talking point after Moonshot launched the open-weight model and then briefly halted new subscriptions because demand strained computing capacity.
Weibo discussions around Kimi K3 broadened into debates over whether cheaper, more efficient models can rival US proprietary systems while still driving total demand for AI compute sharply higher.
The exchange reinforced Kimi K3’s role as another flashpoint in the China-US AI race, with users framing competition increasingly around value for money, infrastructure scale and global talent.
Will China's open-source AI diplomacy win global influence faster than America's strategy of technological dominance?
As new AI models create insatiable demand, who will win the hidden war for power grids and microchips?
Kimi K3 vs. Grok 4.6: How a 2.8 Trillion Parameter Model Redefined AI Competition and Opened a New Global Race
Overview
On July 17, 2026, Moonshot AI launched its Kimi K3 model, causing an immediate reaction in the financial markets. The Nasdaq dropped by about 1 percent as investors sold shares of major AI chip companies like Nvidia and Intel. This swift market response was driven by performance numbers reported directly by Moonshot AI. At launch, all benchmark results for Kimi K3 came from the company’s own evaluations or submissions to leaderboards, with no independent, community-run tests available yet. This highlights how quickly new AI developments can impact both technology benchmarks and global financial markets.