On May 12, Kuaishou Technology (01024.HK) saw a significant surge in its Hong Kong stock price, opening around 10% higher. As of the time of this report, Kuaishou’s stock price has reached 55.4 Hong Kong dollars per share, a 7.36% increase, with a total market value of approximately 240.8 billion Hong Kong dollars (around 30.7 billion US dollars).
According to recent reports, on May 11, it was revealed that Kuaishou plans to spin off its video generation AI business, Klee, with a valuation of 200 billion US dollars. This round of financing is expected to raise 20 billion US dollars, and negotiations with investors are currently underway.
As reported by the Daily Economic News, sources close to the transaction have confirmed that Kuaishou is indeed exploring financing options for Klee, with a valuation of 200 billion US dollars. However, as of the time of this report, Kuaishou has not made any official statement on the matter.
Additionally, LatePost reported that as of the end of April, Klee’s ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) had already reached 500 million US dollars, more than doubling from the previous quarter. If this round of financing is successful, Klee will become the highest-valued video generation AI independent product globally.
Investment bank Morgan Stanley has stated that if the financing is successful, it will unlock significant value for Kuaishou, as the market typically assigns higher valuation multiples to pure AI companies. In their report, Morgan Stanley noted that media reports have suggested a target valuation of 200 billion US dollars for Klee, which is significantly higher than their previous valuation of 60 billion US dollars for Kuaishou. Based on this calculation, Kuaishou’s stock price should reach 68 Hong Kong dollars.
Public records show that Klee was officially launched in June 2024 and is Kuaishou’s core layout in the AIGC (Artificial Intelligence Generation Content) field, carrying the responsibility of creating new growth drivers for the company. In April 2025, Kuaishou established the Klee business unit, upgrading it to a company-level department alongside e-commerce and commercialization, and directly reporting to Kuaishou’s founder and CEO, Cheng Yixiao.
In 2025, CEO Cheng Yixiao publicly stated that he aimed to make Klee the world’s largest video generation AI application in terms of revenue. In 2026, he further stated that Klee’s revenue would achieve over 100% year-on-year growth.
According to Kuaishou’s financial report released on March 25, in the fourth quarter of 2025, Klee’s revenue reached 340 million yuan; in December, its monthly revenue exceeded 20 million US dollars, with an ARR of 240 million US dollars. In January 2026, its ARR further increased to over 300 million US dollars, with a monthly active user base (MAU) exceeding 12 million.
Notably, this 340 million yuan revenue accounts for less than 1% of Kuaishou’s total revenue. The financial report shows that in the fourth quarter of 2025, Kuaishou’s total revenue grew 11.8% year-on-year to 39.6 billion yuan, with core commercial revenue, including online marketing services and other services, growing 17.1% year-on-year. Adjusted net profit reached 5.5 billion yuan. In terms of users, in the fourth quarter of 2025, Kuaishou’s average daily active users reached 408 million, and average monthly active users reached 741 million.
Looking at the full-year performance, in 2025, Kuaishou’s total revenue grew 12.5% year-on-year to 142.8 billion yuan, with full-year adjusted net profit reaching 20.6 billion yuan, a 16.5% year-on-year increase, and an adjusted net profit margin of 14.5%.
In the earnings call, Kuaishou’s CFO, Jin Bing, revealed that the company is continuing to increase its investment in AI. In 2026, Kuaishou’s total capital expenditure (Capex) is expected to reach approximately 26 billion yuan, an increase of around 11 billion yuan from 2025, mainly used for Klee’s large model and other basic model algorithm investments, as well as data and algorithm center construction. In the past year, Kuaishou has continued to promote the deep integration of AI capabilities and business scenarios, empowering content and commercial ecosystems with Klee’s large model capabilities.
Kuaishou’s all-out bet on Klee is driven by its need to find new growth drivers, as its traditional businesses face challenges in achieving high-speed growth. In 2025, the traditional growth engine, the “old iron economy,” had already reached its ceiling.
In 2025, Kuaishou’s average daily active users grew by only 2.76% year-on-year to 410 million, while average monthly active users grew by 2.11% year-on-year to 725 million. Looking at the longer-term trend, from 2021 to 2025, Kuaishou’s daily active user growth rate slowed from 15.58% to 2.76%, while monthly active user growth rate declined from 12.68% to 2.11%.
More notably, in the fourth quarter of 2025, Kuaishou’s daily active users approached 408 million, although still growing year-on-year, but decreasing by 8 million from the third quarter’s 416 million. From the full-year perspective, daily active user data was 408 million, 409 million, 416 million, and 408 million, respectively, with quarterly growth rates almost stagnant.
At the same time, the core growth engine, e-commerce, also faced a slowdown. In the fourth quarter of 2025, Kuaishou’s e-commerce GMV grew 12.93% year-on-year to 521.823 billion yuan, but this growth rate was significantly lower than the previous three quarters’ 15.36%, 17.57%, and 15.23%. Looking at the longer-term trend, from 2021 to 2025, Kuaishou’s e-commerce GMV growth rate declined from 78% to 33%, 31%, 17%, and 15%, with a continuous decline in year-on-year growth rate.
With traditional businesses facing challenges in achieving high-speed growth, Kuaishou urgently needs to find new growth drivers, and Klee may be the key to unlocking this growth.
During the Spring Festival this year, ByteDance’s AI video generation model, Seedance 2.0, went viral globally. According to third-party platform data, Seedance 2.0 drove a surge in downloads, with a 228.43% month-on-month increase in February. Public data shows that Seedance 2.0 had around 45 million monthly active users during the Spring Festival period.
Analysts believe that Kuaishou’s plan to spin off Klee and raise financing marks the transition of AI video generation technology from a simple technical demonstration phase to a phase of substantial commercialization. As Klee 3.0, Seedance 2.0, and other leading multi-modal models continue to iterate, the penetration rate of AI video generation in scenarios such as film, short drama, and marketing will continue to increase, which is expected to significantly reduce production costs and increase production capacity, driving the AIGC industry chain to scale up.
