--- title: "Kunlun's Skywork: SkyReels (天工) and Mureka push Chinese AI video and music outward" date: 2026-11-06 category: Generative Media site: NeuroAI canonical: https://neuroai.site/a/na-aigc-skywork-skyreels-mureka language: en --- # Kunlun's Skywork: SkyReels (天工) and Mureka push Chinese AI video and music outward > Kunlun Wanwei's Skywork ships SkyReels (天工) video and Mureka music, plus microdrama (短剧) platforms with ARR over USD 400M. A look at its AIGC stack. A short-series studio in Southeast Asia scripts a sixty-second episode, generates the footage, dubs it into three languages, and ships it the same afternoon—without a camera crew. The pipeline is stitched from Kunlun Wanwei's Skywork family: SkyReels (天工) for video, Mureka for music, and a microdrama (短剧) platform for distribution. This is not a demo reel. It is the shape of a Chinese AIGC company that bet early on going global rather than going domestic-first. ## Key takeaways - Kunlun Wanwei's 2025 revenue reached RMB 8.198 billion (≈ US$1.15 billion / HK$8.96 billion), up 44.78% year on year, with overseas revenue at RMB 7.723 billion (≈ US$1.09 billion / HK$8.44 billion). - SkyReels-V4 ranked first on Artificial Analysis's text-to-video and image-to-video leaderboards (with audio), ahead of Kling 3.0, Google Veo 3.1, and Sora 2, per the company's 2025 annual report. - Mureka V8 took the top spot on Artificial Analysis for both vocals and instrumentation, surpassing Suno V5, Google Lyria 3 Pro, and MiniMax Music 2.5. - SkyReels-V2, released in April 2025, was described as the first infinite-duration video model using a diffusion-forcing framework. - The short-drama and AI short-drama business reached roughly US$36 million in single-month gross merchandise value by end-2025, with annual recurring revenue above US$400 million. - Overseas income made up about 91% of the group's total, showing how far the model-led strategy reached beyond China. ## A portfolio, not a single model Kunlun Wanwei (Skywork) is unusual in running a full stack of media models at once. Its 2026 strategy, outlined at the Zhongguancun Forum, rests on four SOTA-level models—video, music and audio, world simulation, and a base text-and-multimodal core—feeding three AI-native platforms: AI short drama, AI music, and AI games. That breadth matters because media production is chained. A clip needs footage, a score, a voice, and a channel. Owning each link lets the company sell a pipeline instead of a feature. ## SkyReels (天工): from clips to films SkyReels began as a Chinese-first answer to AI short-video production. Version 1 arrived in February 2025 as the country's first open model aimed at microdrama (短剧) creation, paired with SkyReels-A1 for expression and motion control. Version 2, in April 2025, introduced infinite-duration generation through a diffusion-forcing framework, letting creators chain shots without hard time limits. By early 2026, SkyReels-V4 led Artificial Analysis's text-to-video and image-to-video charts that include audio, beating Kling 3.0, Google Veo 3.1, and Sora 2 in the company's reported rankings. A related model, SkyReels-A3, drives audio-to-video for digital human (数字人) output—still photos that speak and gesture from a voice track—useful for spokes-avatar scenes. ## Mureka: music that aims to sound human Mureka is the group's music and audio arm. Its lineage runs from an internal SkyMusic 1.0 test in early 2024 to Mureka V6 with the O1 reasoning model in March 2025, billed as the first music reasoning model. By 2026, Mureka V8 led Artificial Analysis on both vocal and instrumental quality, according to the annual report, ahead of Suno V5, Google Lyria 3 Pro, and MiniMax Music 2.5. The pitch is commercial readiness: tracks for short videos, games, podcasts, and film scores, delivered through an API used by thousands of enterprise developers. That is a different goal from "fun song in a browser"—it targets the background-music economy of the short-video web. ## The microdrama (短剧) flywheel The quiet strength is distribution. Kunlun's DramaWave and SkyReels together formed a short-drama engine that, by the end of 2025, reached about US$36 million in monthly gross merchandise value and more than US$400 million in annual recurring revenue. A model that makes episodes cheaply is only valuable if there is a place to run them; the platform closes that loop. Matrix-Game 3.0, the world-model piece, adds real-time interaction at 720p and up to 40 frames per second, aimed at AI games and interactive drama rather than passive viewing. ## Why a full media stack Kunlun's decision to run video, music, audio, and world-simulation models together is less about showing technical breadth and more about matching how real productions are assembled. A short drama needs footage, a score, voices, and a place to publish, and owning each link lets the company sell a finished pipeline rather than a single feature. That integration is the real competitive point: rivals may match one model, but few can hand a creator an end-to-end path from script to shipped episode without leaving the ecosystem. ## Honest limitations Every ranking above comes from the company's own annual report citing Artificial Analysis, a respected third-party benchmark—but the numbers are reported by the vendor, and leaderboard positions shift monthly as rivals ship updates. Infinite-duration video sounds absolute; in practice it means chained generation with consistency work between shots, not a flawless feature film. The 91% overseas share is a strength for reach and a concentration risk if any single market tightens rules on synthetic media. Rights and royalties for model-produced music and faces remain unsettled across jurisdictions, which matters most for commercial releases. ## What readers can do now - Compare SkyReels-V4 and Mureka V8 against your current video and music tools on one real brief before trusting leaderboard claims. - If you publish short drama, pilot the microdrama (短剧) pipeline on a low-budget series and track production cost per finished minute. --- Published by NeuroAI (https://neuroai.site/) — https://neuroai.site/a/na-aigc-skywork-skyreels-mureka Free to quote with attribution and a link to the original.