Kling's $2.8 Billion Raise Is a Verdict on AI Video Hype
Kuaishou's Kling AI closed a funding round of roughly $2.8 billion at an $18 billion valuation ahead of a planned Hong Kong spin-off listing, backed by Tencent, Alibaba Cloud, Baidu, and Chinese state-linked funds. The raise lands five months after OpenAI shut down Sora, which generated just $2.1 million in lifetime revenue against roughly $1 million in daily operating costs. Kling's edge isn't a flashier model — it's pricing 65% below Sora and distribution embedded directly into Kuaishou's commerce ecosystem. For PMs, the lesson is that vendor selection in generative video should weight unit economics and distribution over demo polish, because the category is now punishing spectacle and rewarding plumbing.