This Chinese AI Model Became So Popular It Stopped Taking New Users— and Analysts Say Nvidia, Micron Could Be the Real Winners

U.S. chipmakers, such as Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU), could see a significant uptick due to the increasing popularity of Chinese AI models like Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3, as per analysts.

Two days after its launch on July 17, Moonshot AI temporarily stopped new sign-ups for its Kimi K3 model due to high demand and compute constraints.

Kimi K3 has received far more love than we expected, and our GPUs are feeling it.

Over the past 48 hours, demand has pushed close to the limits of our current capacity. To protect the experience of existing subscribers, we're temporarily pausing new subscriptions and…

— Kimi.ai (@Kimi_Moonshot) July 19, 2026

Anni Sen, managing partner of BluBird Capital, told MarketWatch that the surge in demand for Kimi K3 indicates a potential long-term increase in chip demand. She stated that this development is “a positive tailwind for the memory trade.”

While Kimi K3 is efficient to run, the model’s need to hold 2.8 trillion parameters in active memory could make it challenging for enterprises to operate on their servers, according to Sen. This could lead to an increase in AI workloads and further boost demand for chips.

Wedbush analyst Matt Bryson noted that if Chinese AI models continue to gain traction, it would be “arguably good for memory vendors,” as demand for high-performance memory is expected to rise.

The rise of Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3 has already impacted AI infrastructure stocks. The rollout of Kimi K3 led to a drop in Samsung Electronics Co. (OTC:SSNLF) and SK Hynix Inc. (NASDAQ:SKHY)’s stock prices in the Seoul market due to concerns about excessive spending on AI infrastructure.

Over the past 5 days, SK Hynix stock declined 10.05%, while Micron stock dropped 12.29% on the NASDAQ

Moreover, investor Peter Schiff has expressed concerns about the AI stock bubble popping due to the emergence of low-cost Chinese competitors like Moonshot AI. Schiff pointed to Space Exploration Technologies Corp.‘s (NASDAQ:SPCX)’s stock trading 11% below its IPO price and 46% below its peak, arguing that while AI itself isn’t a bubble, AI stocks are—and that the bubble has likely already burst.

Meanwhile, SK Hynix’s Chairman Chey Tae-won has argued for expanding memory supply rather than maximizing profits from the current shortage. He expects overall memory demand to rise by more than 50% to 60% next year, with AI-specific demand potentially climbing by 60% to 100%.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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