Kling AI has hired CICC, Goldman Sachs and UBS for a Hong Kong IPO of at least $1 billion, after a July round valued it at $15 billion or more. A float of about 6% would set the first public price for an AI video business valued privately at 30 to 36 times its revenue run rate.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption55
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives60
- Confidence50
Startups raised $159 billion in Q3 2026, the year's weakest quarter so far, yet a record 27 companies closed billion-dollar rounds, Crunchbase data shows. Their count has climbed every quarter of 2026 while totals fell, and AI took about nine-tenths of the gain on last year.
Reality
- Evidence62
- Adoption
- Insufficient
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives30
- Confidence58
OpenAI's own deprecations page lists four cutoffs between 24 September and 23 October 2026. Finding out whether they touch your code takes one look at the Usage dashboard, in an account plenty of buyers cannot sign into.
Reality
- Evidence66
- Adoption62
- Hype gap+16
- Incentives58
- Confidence64
Tracxn puts 2026 native AI funding in the region at $4.1 billion, more than double 2025. Remove Kling AI's $2.8 billion Series D and 22 rounds share $1.3 billion.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption
- Insufficient
- Hype gap+40
- Incentives60
- Confidence48
July was the biggest month for new unicorns in more than four years, and H1 alone had already beaten the whole of 2025. One company priced at $1.1 billion is less than a year old.
Reality
- Evidence62
- Adoption45
- Hype gap+18
- Incentives58
- Confidence55