MiniMax prices Hong Kong IPO at top as investor interest in Chinese AI startups surges

MiniMax Is Said to Plan Pricing Hong Kong IPO at Top on AI Fervor

MiniMax's IPO drew demand from investors for several times the shares on offer, including sovereign wealth funds and global long-only investors, and the company is expected to begin trading Friday. MiniMax plans to price its Hong Kong initial public offering at the top of the marketed range, people familiar with the matter said, reflecting investor enthusiasm for Chinese startups that are increasingly challenging US rivals like OpenAI. The Shanghai-based company advised investors it would sell shares at HK$165 apiece, the people said, asking not to be named because they weren't authorized to speak publicly. Given strong demand, it intends to stop taking orders from institutional investors at 5 p.m. local time in each region on Monday, the people added, a day earlier than expected. MiniMax, backed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund, is among the first of China's post-ChatGPT generative AI firms to go public. It started taking orders last Wednesday for shares at a minimum of HK$151. At the top of the range, MiniMax will raise at least HK$4.2 billion ($538 million). It has an option to increase the deal size. A MiniMax representative declined to comment. Read: From Baidu Unit to Jio, Asia's IPO Boom Shows No Sign of Slowing Beijing's support for the local AI industry is encouraging firms to accelerate expansion and fundraising. Recent blockbuster performances in AI-related companies also underscored broad-based demand for potential national champions in a defining technology. MiniMax's IPO drew demand from investors for several times the shares on offer, the people said. Those included sovereign wealth funds and global long-only investors -- which generally invest in stocks they expect to rise while abstaining from short-selling. The company is expected to begin trading Friday, fueling a busy start of the year for Hong Kong. Firms tied to AI are expected to fill the Asian financial hub's pipeline for share sales in 2026: Some 11 companies have laid out plans to list in Hong Kong this month, with proceeds of as much as $4.1 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. MiniMax's debut is slated for the same week as close rival Zhipu, both considered key rivals to American firms such as Anthropic. They're the first of the so-called Chinese AI dragons to list, emerging from a field that includes fellow startups Moonshot and Stepfun.

Chinese AI firm MiniMax targets up to $539 million in Hong Kong IPO

Dec 31 (Reuters) - Chinese AI startup MiniMax Group is seeking to raise up to HK$4.19 billion ($538.54 million) in a Hong Kong initial public offering, a regulatory filing showed on Wednesday. In July, Reuters had reported that MiniMax could raise HK$4 billion to HK$5 billion in the IPO, with an overall valuation of the firm at $4 billion. MiniMax is among the first batch of Chinese artificial intelligence companies to seek a public listing. The rise of DeepSeek, China's alternative to ChatGPT, this year has boosted investor interest in the domestic AI sector. The firm is set to offer a total of 25.4 million shares by way of a global offering, at up to HK$165.00 per offer share. ($1 = 7.7803 Hong Kong dollars) Reporting by Shivangi Lahiri in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Chinese startup Z.ai seeks $560M raise in Hong Kong IPO listing - SiliconANGLE

One of China's largest large language model developers, Z.ai, today filed plans for an initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. It's scheduled to list its shares on January 8 under the ticker "2513", and claims that by doing so it will become "the world's first publicly listed foundation model company." The company, formerly known as Zhipu AI and officially known as Knowledge Atlas Technology Joint Stock Co. Ltd., is recognized as one of the leading artificial intelligence startups in China. It's best known for its GLM series of pre-trained LLMs that support conversational interactions in both Chinese and English language, as well as its Ying video generation model that creates short clips based on natural language prompts. Z.ai is also the developer of an agentic AI application called AutoGLM, which can be installed on smartphones and use third-party apps and tools to automate tasks on behalf of users. In the past, it has received significant funding from Chinese technology giants such as Tencent Corp. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The startup was among a number of Chinese firms that were blacklisted by the U.S. Commerce Department earlier this year due to national security concerns. The sanctions prohibit U.S. organizations from using its services and make it harder for it to procure advanced processors to run its LLMs. But they don't appear to have hindered its progress all that much. The company recently released its most advanced model so far in GLM-4.7, and it currently ranks sixth overall on the LMArena WebDev arena, and has seen strong traction on OpenRouter too. Admittedly, Z.ai is just one among dozens of AI startups vying for market share in a crowded industry, but its IPO filing is significant because it provides some unique insights into the precarious finances of AI model developers. Tech journalist Alex Wilhelm, who delved into Z.ai's finances in his Substack newsletter Cautious Optimism, said the one thing that jumps out is the "incredibly expensive" nature of building advanced AI models. Just like U.S. firms such as OpenAI Group PBC and Anthropic PBC, the company is burning through tons of cash. While its revenue is expanding fast, its costs are growing even faster. In the first half of 2024, Z.ai generated revenue of just $6.4 million and an operating loss of $146.9 million, while in the first half of this year, its revenue rose to $27.2 million, while losses grew to $271.1 million. The company detailed research and development costs of $122.5 million in the first six months of 2024, rising to $227.5 million in the first half of this year. The startup plans to issue 37,419,500 class H shares at an offer price of HK$116.20 (around $15.01), and is targeting a total raise of $560 million at a $6.5 billion valuation. If it achieves that goal, it could become Hong Kong's largest stock listing. Interestingly, while most of OpenAI's revenue appears to come from consumer subscriptions, Z.ai said in its IPO filing that it expects the bulk of its sales to come from enterprise customers. The startup operates a model-as-a-service strategy and said its API platform currently services more than 2.7 million enterprise and application developers. Once the listing is complete, Z.ai said it will use 70% of the proceeds to fuel its ongoing R&D efforts, with 10% going towards improving its commercial offerings, 10% to expand its partner ecosystem and the final 10% set aside for working capital and other corporate expenses. While Z.ai's IPO listing is slated for January 8, it may not be the first foundation model developers to go live on the HKSE. Earlier today, Bloomberg reported that one of its chief rivals, a company called MiniMax, is also preparing for an IPO that's expected to list next month. However, MiniMax has not yet officially submitted any documents regarding its listing.

MiniMax moves toward Hong Kong IPO as Chinese AI firms rush to go public - SiliconANGLE

MiniMax moves toward Hong Kong IPO as Chinese AI firms rush to go public Chinese artificial intelligence startup MiniMax is reportedly prepping for its initial public offering in Hong Kong, backed by Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. According to a report from Bloomberg revealed the company is seeking over $600 million, according to unnamed sources. The company will be taking investor bids as early as Wednesday with an expected listing in January. The deal would position MiniMax in the thick of the contentious race among Chinese generative AI firms looking to make their public debut. Additional backers include DG Capital, Perseverance Asset Management, and South Korea's Mirae Asset Group. MiniMax is among a growing field of Chinese AI model vendors aiming to become product leaders. Over the past few years, multiple model developers, including Baidu Inc. and Alibaba, have released frontier-model candidates. A senior Tencent Holdings Ltd. executive described the flurry of new models as a "war of hundred models." The company has managed to stand out amid a continuous rush of model releases and a crowded domestic market, as established giants and startups alike race to edge out the next performance advantage or introduce a novel large language model architecture. Questions remain about the market's financial stability and long-term capacity. Last year, MiniMax earned $30.5 million in revenue, compared to the colossal $13 billion in revenue projected for OpenAI Group PBC in 2025. In spite of these concerns, investors still continue to pour substantial funds into AI startups. MiniMax raised nearly $300 million in a July funding round, following a $600 million round led by Alibaba reported in March 2024. In the United States, SoftBank Group Corp. completed a $40 billion funding commitment for OpenAI. Last week, the company debuted M2.1, a multi-language AI model featuring significantly enhanced performance for real-world complex tasks and agentic capabilities across numerous programming languages and back office work. MiniMax is well known for developing cutting-edge multimodal AI models capable of generating text, realistic images and video, voice generation and performing image understanding. MiniMax is currently in contention with rival Zhipu AI, officially known as Knowledge Atlas Technology, to become the first to launch its IPO. Zhipu offered a share sale today to raise $560 million for a planned IPO debut of January 8.

Alibaba Backs OpenAI's Chinese Rival MiniMax In New IPO - Alibaba Gr Hldgs (NYSE:BABA), Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

Global investor interest in Chinese artificial intelligence companies continues to grow, and MiniMax is preparing to capitalize on that demand. MiniMax Targets Hong Kong IPO In 2026 The Chinese AI startup plans to go public in Hong Kong, positioning itself as a rival to OpenAI. MiniMax aims to raise at least 3.83 billion Hong Kong dollars ($492 million) by selling roughly 25.4 million shares priced between 151 Hong Kong dollars and 165 Hong Kong dollars each, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. Also Read: Alibaba Amplifies AI Investment, Valuing MiniMax Over $2.5B in Latest Financing Round If demand proves strong, the offering could expand to about $712 million through upsize and greenshoe options. The IPO would value MiniMax at approximately $6.5 billion, according to filings. Alibaba, Abu Dhabi Fund Anchor The Deal Cornerstone investors include Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. The cornerstone tranche amounts to approximately $350 million. China International Capital Corp., UBS, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley are serving as underwriters. MiniMax began taking investor orders on Wednesday and expects to start trading on January 9. AI Rivals And Market Momentum MiniMax will debut the same week as rival Zhipu AI, with both companies viewed as top domestic AI contenders. The company plans to use most of the IPO proceeds to fund AI model research and product development over the next five years. MiniMax generated $30.5 million in revenue in 2024. The listing comes as Hong Kong's IPO market regains momentum. The city raised $36.5 billion from 114 IPOs in 2025, according to LSEG data. The fundraising was boosted by rising enthusiasm for Chinese artificial intelligence firms following the success of DeepSeek and high-profile global deals such as Meta Platforms Inc.'s (NASDAQ:META) acquisition of Manus, Reuters reported. Read Next: China's AI Appetite Pushes Nvidia Into A Supply Crunch Photo by T. Schneider via Shutterstock BABAAlibaba Group Holding Ltd$146.72-0.43%OverviewMETAMeta Platforms Inc$665.95-%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Chinese AI Startup MiniMax to Seek $600 Million in Hong Kong IPO | PYMNTS.com

The company may start taking investor orders as early as Wednesday (Dec. 31) for a listing in January, although the size and timing of the deal could change, Bloomberg reported Tuesday (Dec. 30), citing unnamed sources. MiniMax declined to comment on the report, according to Bloomberg. The company is one of several firms racing to become the first Chinese generative AI startup to go public, and it aims to compete with U.S. leaders in the field, the report said. Rival firm Knowledge Atlas Technology Joint Stock Co., also known as Zhipu AI or Z.ai, aims to raise $552 million from an IPO in Hong Kong, per the report. It was reported in March that Zhipu AI raised more than 1 billion yuan ($137 million) in a funding round led by Hangzhou Municipal Construction Investment Group Co. and Shangcheng Capital, both of which have ties to the Hangzhou local government, with participation by existing backers Alibaba Group, Tencent and others. PYMNTS reported that the time that Chinese AI startups came into focus after DeepSeek took Silicon Valley by surprise with foundation models that performed at par with the best AI models but at a fraction of the price. In July, Z.ai released a new AI model that it said costs less to use than DeepSeek, is open source and can operate on eight Nvidia H20 chips. The company said that the GLM-4.5 model series features two models -- GLM-4.5 and GLM-4.5-Air -- that satisfy the requirements of agentic applications by unifying reasoning, coding and agentic capabilities. Reuters reported Dec. 23 that global investors are betting on Chinese AI companies in hopes of finding the next DeepSeek and to diversify their investments. China has fast-tracked listings of chip makers as the country seeks to attain tech independence and close the tech gap with the U.S., according to the report. There has also been a wave of startups in China and Hong Kong, aiming to match the success of DeepSeek and tap into growing demand from investors.