Moonshot’s Kimi K3 lands on Amazon in key test for Chinese open-source AI revenue

Open-weight models allow users around the world to use, copy, modify and distribute the software without paying the model developer

Chinese artificial intelligence start-up Moonshot AI has begun supplying its flagship Kimi K3 model to Amazon Web Services (AWS), one of the world’s largest cloud services providers, in a major test case for how open-weight AI models can generate higher revenue from third-party platforms.

The model is now available on Amazon Bedrock, AWS’s tool for building generative AI applications, offering “a powerful new option for coding and knowledge work”, Amazon said in an announcement on Friday.

While neither company has publicly disclosed financial terms, the arrangement appears to have triggered Moonshot’s updated commercial licensing terms.

Revised in July upon K3’s release, the open-source licence mandates a paid arrangement if any firm or its affiliates host the model as a service and generate more than US$20 million in aggregate annual revenue. AWS reported in July that its AI business had surpassed US$25 billion in annual revenue run rate.