Kuaishou Technology’s AI spinoff unveils Kling 4.0 video model ahead of Hong Kong listing

Kuaishou Technology just gave its AI video spinoff a serious upgrade. Kling, the generative video unit the Chinese tech company has been grooming for a standalone Hong Kong listing, dropped its 4.0 model on September 28, doubling its maximum video clip length to 30 seconds and adding a suite of creative controls designed to keep it ahead of ByteDance’s competing Seedance product. The timing is deliberate. With an IPO potentially targeting 2027, every product milestone doubles as a pitch to investors. What Kling 4.0 actually does The new model supports more than a dozen reference inputs, meaning creators can feed the system multiple visual cues to guide generation. It also allows for up to 10 keyframes, giving users granular control over how a video unfolds frame by frame. The previous Kling 3.0 series, released in February 2026, had already introduced native 4K output, so this update builds on an already competitive technical foundation. A “lite” version of the model is expected in October 2026, aimed at annual subscribers who want capable but less resource-intensive generation. The money tells the story Kling’s revenue trajectory has been steep enough to justify the spinoff thesis...