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

MiniMax Sets Hong Kong IPO Price at Top of Range

Shanghai-based MiniMax has decided to price its Hong Kong IPO at HK$165 per share, the top of its marketed range, reflecting surging investor interest in AI and Chinese AI firms challenging US rivals like OpenAI 1

1

. The initial public offering will raise at least HK$4.2 billion, or approximately $538 million, with the Alibaba backed AI startup selling roughly 25.4 million shares 2

2

. Given the strong investor demand, MiniMax plans to stop taking orders from institutional investors a day earlier than expected, closing the books at 5 p.m. local time on Monday 1

1

. The company is expected to begin trading Friday, with the deal potentially expanding to about $712 million through upsize and greenshoe options 5

5

.

Strong Investor Demand Fuels Oversubscription

The Hong Kong IPO drew demand from investors for several times the shares on offer, signaling robust appetite for Chinese AI startups 1

1

. Cornerstone investors include Alibaba and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, with the cornerstone tranche amounting to approximately $350 million 5

5

. The investor base includes sovereign wealth funds and global long-only investors who typically invest in stocks they expect to rise while abstaining from short-selling 1

1

. At the top pricing, MiniMax will achieve a valuation of approximately $6.5 billion, underscoring market momentum behind generative AI firms 5

5

. China International Capital Corp., UBS, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley are serving as underwriters for the transaction 5

5

.

Race Among Chinese AI Dragons to Go Public

MiniMax is among the first batch of Chinese artificial intelligence companies to seek a public listing and is part of the so-called Chinese AI dragons emerging from a field that includes fellow startups Moonshot and Stepfun 1

1

. The company's debut is slated for the same week as close rival Zhipu AI, with both considered key rivals to American firms such as Anthropic 1

1

. Zhipu AI, officially known as Knowledge Atlas Technology, is seeking to raise funds of $560 million and claims it will become the world's first publicly listed foundation model company when it lists on January 8 3

3

. The rise of DeepSeek, China's alternative to ChatGPT, has boosted investor interest in the domestic AI sector, creating favorable conditions for these listings 2

2

.

MiniMax's AI Model Development and Market Position

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 4

4

. 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 4

4

. The company has managed to stand out amid a continuous rush of model releases and a crowded domestic market, where established giants and startups alike race to edge out the next performance advantage or introduce a novel large language models architecture 4

4

. MiniMax generated $30.5 million in revenue in 2024, and plans to use most of the IPO proceeds to fund AI model research and product development over the next five years 5

5

.

Beijing Support and Hong Kong Stock Market Revival

Beijing's support for the local AI industry is encouraging firms to accelerate expansion and fundraising, with recent blockbuster performances in AI-related companies underscoring broad-based demand for potential national champions in a defining technology 1

1

. The listing comes as Hong Kong's IPO market regains momentum, with the city raising $36.5 billion from 114 IPOs in 2025, boosted by rising enthusiasm for Chinese artificial intelligence firms 5

5

. Some 11 companies have laid out plans to list in Hong Kong this month, with proceeds of as much as $4.1 billion, and firms tied to AI are expected to fill the Asian financial hub's pipeline for share sales in 2026 1

1

. MiniMax previously raised nearly $300 million in a July funding round, following a $600 million round led by Alibaba reported in March 2024 4

4

.