MiniMax Doubles in Hong Kong Debut, Marking Another Chinese AI Listing

Shares of Chinese AI startup MiniMax Group doubled on its first day of trading in Hong Kong on Friday, becoming the second major Chinese developer of large language models to go public.

The company raised HK$4.8 billion ($620 million) in its IPO, outperforming its local rival. AI Zhipuwhich was listed in Hong Kong a day earlier and rose a modest 13% in its debut.

MiniMax shares closed at HK$345, up 109% from its offer price of HK$165.

Both MiniMax and Zhipu are among China’s so-called “AI tigers,” startups that are building large language models to compete with U.S. AI giants like OpenAI, which they have now beaten to IPO.

Founded in 2022 and backed by investors such as Alibaba Group And Tencent HoldingsMiniMax specializes in AI applications including chatbots, image generation and video synthesis.

Its founders, Yan Junjie, the company’s CEO, and Yun Yeyi, its COO, previously worked at SenseTime, a long-time player in China’s AI space.

MiniMax’s market debut comes as Chinese AI-related companies step up fundraising efforts to compete with U.S. rivals and circumvent Washington’s export restrictions on advanced chips used for AI training to China.

According to the company’s prospectus, it had more than 200 million cumulative users in more than 200 countries and regions as of September last year.

It also reported revenue of $53.4 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2025, up about 174% from the previous year, although the company still reported a net loss of $512 million over the same period.

MiniMax said most of its revenue comes from subscriptions and in-app purchases for its AI products. He added that it was still at “a nascent stage in terms of monetization and commercialization,” after years of developing its core models.

Minimax said it plans to use proceeds from the IPO to continue research and development.