MiniMax raises $2 billion as CEO forgoes salary until AGI amid 80% stock slump

MiniMax Secures $2 Billion in Critical Funding Round

Shanghai-based MiniMax has closed a $2 billion fundraising round at a time when the Chinese AI company faces mounting pressure from competitors and a dramatic stock slump 1

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. The AI company is raising approximately HK$9.54 billion ($1.22 billion) by placing 35.6 million new shares at HK$268 each, representing a 9.89% discount to its last closing price 4

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. Additionally, MiniMax plans to issue HK$6.5 billion worth of zero-coupon convertible bonds due in 2027, which can be converted into 19.4 million shares at an initial conversion price of HK$335 per share, a 12.64% premium to the last closing price 3

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. Morgan Stanley and UBS are arranging the deal as placing agents 5

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CEO Forgoes Salary in Bold AGI Commitment

In a striking move coinciding with the fundraising announcement, MiniMax CEO Yan Junjie declared he will forgo his salary until the company achieves artificial general intelligence 1

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. The pledge, delivered in an internal memo signed as "IO," goes beyond symbolic gestures. Yan Junjie committed to allocate shares equivalent to 4% of MiniMax's total equity from his personal holdings over the next four years to reward long-term employees, while dedicating an additional 1% of equity to support the open-source community 2

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. While giving up salary costs relatively little when founder wealth sits primarily in equity, the 5% share giveaway represents a substantial commitment that doubles as a retention tool amid fierce competition for Chinese AI talent 1

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Stock Slump Reflects Market Skepticism

MiniMax shares dropped 9.8% on the fundraising news, underperforming the Hang Seng Tech Index's 2.7% gain 4

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. The stock has lost approximately 80% of its value since March, following the company's Hong Kong listing in January that raised about $619 million 1

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. Share prices typically drop when companies offer convertible bonds due to dilution concerns for existing shareholders, and the timing proved particularly challenging as a six-month lock-up on early backers expired 1

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. Citi analysts warned that negative sentiment, uncertainty over user retention, and monetization strategy are likely to remain near-term overhangs on the stock 4

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Struggling Flagship Model Faces Fierce Competition

The open-source AI model developer launched its MiniMax-M3 model in early June, featuring 427 billion parameters and the ability to process prompts containing up to 1 million tokens 2

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. Despite technical improvements—including performance 9 times faster in prefill and 15 times faster in decode phases compared to its predecessor—the MiniMax-M3 model struggled to win developers 1

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. The company halved the price of its most advanced model just one week after launch, a move that signaled weakness rather than strategic positioning in a market already gripped by brutal price competition 1

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. Rivals including Zhipu AI's GLM-5.2, DeepSeek's V4, and Moonshot AI have captured attention that MiniMax lost, leaving the company building ambitious large language models while its pricing power erodes 1

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Massive User Growth Drives Infrastructure Needs

MiniMax plans to allocate approximately 80% of the proceeds from the share sale and bond issue to expand AI infrastructure and model R&D, citing surging demand 3

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. The company's enterprise and developer customer base grew to more than 1 million by the end of June from about 200,000 at the end of 2025, while its consumer products reached roughly 300 million global users 3

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. MiniMax generates revenue through a cloud-based platform providing access to hosted versions of its models, alongside paid multimedia generation apps geared toward consumers 2

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. The remaining funds will support the company's AI agent product "Harness," global expansion, and general corporate purposes 3

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Chinese AI Funding Frenzy Intensifies

The fundraising comes as Chinese tech companies capitalize on strong investor appetite to fund research, hiring, and expansion plans 5

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. Zhipu AI unveiled plans on Thursday to raise $4 billion in one of the largest Hong Kong share sales of the year, while GPU designer Iluvatar CoreX announced plans to raise HK$7.07 billion 1

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. DeepSeek raised more than $7.4 billion in its first funding round last month, valuing the Chinese firm at over $50 billion 4

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. Despite the stock slump, Goldman Sachs turned more positive on MiniMax on Friday, calling the valuation attractive and the model cost-efficient 1

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. The real test for this Chinese AI company will be whether $2 billion buys enough time to ship a model that developers actually choose before the next rival gains ground in the increasingly competitive landscape for AGI development.